today is wednesday, september 30, and i am behind on my posting (again). its really hard to write when you drive 200 - 300 miles a day - every day!!! below are some posts, and tonight i plan to write some more including our visit with willie on the rez, the death defying bear tooth pass (raises her fist to the sky at kevin the ups guy), yellowstone, and idaho potatoes. thanks for following us and stay tuned!
oh! julia is much farther on her writing than i am, so check her out at: http://www.inlouofthings.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
into south dakota!
friday, september 25, 2009 – cont.
after leaving pipestone, we crossed into south dakota and splurged (only$33) on a great room at an awesome hotel called
the new landMARK country inn in murdo south dakota. the owners were SO nice. they gave us the cheapest room they had, which was a shared bathroom room. we had 2 beds, but had to go into the hallway and shared the bathroom/shower with our neighbor. they had a pool that was open
driving into south dakota, i witnessed the most beautiful sunset ever. i believe everyone should see a south dakota sunset before they die:
pipestone, mn
friday, september 25, 2009
we drove straight across minnesota towards pipestone. pipestone, minnesota is about 8 miles east of the south dakota line (!!) and the pipestone national monument area protects the pipestone quarries that the native americans use to obtain the stone that is used to create their sacred pipes. the quarries are closed to only native americans:
also at the national monument is a site called the three maidens. the three stones were originally one boulder that came down on a canadian glacier. legend says the stones hold the spirits of three maidens and offerings must be given to them before going into the quarries for pipestone.
pipestone, mn, is a neat old town, with many of the buildings made of beautiful sioux quartzite and built around 1880-1900. they are all are listed on the national registry for historic places.:
backtrack a day
wednesday september 23, 2009
upon reflction, i realize i failed to give props to mt. horeb, wisconsin, which we passed through on wednesday the 23rd. mt. horeb is the troll capital of the world! its a quaint norwegian-esq village, with cows, llamas (or were they alpacas?), and carved wooden trolls everywhere:
we also visited little norway in blue mounds, wi:
here is a nice shot of wisconsin countryside, ya, i could live there…during the summer
we went by the house on the rock , but it was too late to take the tour (and too expensive!!), so here are some shots from outside and the visitor center:
we also drove by taliesin – home of frank lloyd wright, we couldnt visit, but it is an amazing sight to see, from the road:
on the way out of wisconsin going west towards la crosse, we passed jasen dane design . pretty cool stuff:
as the sun began to set, another long day on the road, we head across the mississippi west to minnesota!
Friday, September 25, 2009
minnesota!
thursday, sept 24, 2009
ive decided to date my posts as i write them because i can write every day, but cannot get them online every day, and it has become confusing for me.
so, today was thursday the 24th.
last evening, we crossed the 
and guess what minnesota has thousands of besides lakes? yep, wind mills!
we did make a little stop to see the jolly green giant, of course:
i will leave you with a pretty picture i took today:
circle sanctuary for the fall equinox
tuesday we called circle sanctuary to see if we could drop by for a visit. learning that their facilities arent really equipped for drop in camping, i felt really bad about not calling in advance. however, after talking with salena, she made arrangements for us to stay overnight at the sanctuary!! 
circle sanctuary is a 200 acre
we then walked their labyrinth (!!) and he explained to me how he is reclaiming the prairie there, and what plants were indigenous and those that are invasive. he is a fascinating man, and a true asset to circle sanctuary.
here is a video i made of their brigid's (sp) spring, which he explained was a naturally occurring little spring that is fed from the nearby hill. it was one of the most amazing little things i have ever seen, truly:
after a full morning of work, salena came and took julia and i on a tour of some of the other sacred sites there. we went up to their cemetery, where many cremains are laid to rest, high upon a hill. salena does very good work for justice for all religious rights. her lady liberty league has stood with and for many whose rights have been denied. i loved the little statue dedicated to all the babies that never got to be born:
then, we walked over to their stone circle. she calls it a microlith stone circle, as compared to our megalith stone circle. she has such a great happiness about her, and a sweet sweet heart. she explained that their stone circle is created with small stones that are brought (and some mailed) to the sanctuary. there is a chunk of the berlin wall there (!!), in addition to stones from all over the world. it is an amazing site, where ceremonials are held, and there is a magic in the air there that mingles with the sweet smells of the forest:
a little later salena showed us spirit rock. it is an out cropping of rock (sandstone, i think) high on the mountain there (at about 1100 ft). she explained that it had been an indian sacred site, used for vision quests. later it became known as sunset rock, where locals would come and sit and watch the sunset, but now as part of circle sanctuary, it is hidden off the main road so as not to invite folks who may not know their way around, because it very high and somewhat pelegro. but i gotta tell ya, it sure was close to heaven…
on the path there we passed an oak tree that salena said was older than european settlers, whoa! also, there at spirit rock is a medicine wheel that was a gift from a native from illinois who relocated it there rock by rock. spirit rock is used for ritual and meditation, weddings, funerals, and questing. ya, close to heaven.
after the tour or spirit rock, we said our goodbyes and thanks for the hospitality. i look forward to seeing salena again soon, and coming back to circle sanctuary some day.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
wisconsin – a most beautiful state!!
monday (9/21) morning, having checked out of illinois beach state park, it was back to chicago to pick up julia. i think if i went on vacation to chicago to visit someone i knew, you know fly in/fly out, run around with someone who knows the city…it would be a blast. but driving in and around and out, not for me, nope.
wisconsin, however…LOVE IT!
first stop – the jelly belly factory of course!! we didnt take the tour, but did go in and buy some jelly beans :o), then my camera batteries died.
then, as we were in wisconsin, what next? find some cheese!!! julia’s friend, john, recommended the mars cheese castle, and well, since we WERE in kenosha…:
then we drove west towards southwestern wisconsin, and decided to splurge on a motel room. we found the swiss aire motel, in new glarus, wi to be sweet and cozy. this was monday night, and it rained, so the motel was super nice! we unloaded the car and went through all the gear and downsized everything, sending a package of julia’s excess stuff to her dad’s along with some hot sauce picked up at mars cheese castle for him, and some jelly bellies for kenny. my excess went to doc’s with some hot sauce for him. sorry honey, i forgot to include your gummies from albanese, so expect another package at some point :o)
giving up some gear was liberating! it made extra space in the vibe, which makes it so much easier to transfer the gear from the back to the front seats, when we car camp. life is easy, yep.
and life is fun, here on the road with julia.
and happiness is blueberry white cheddar cheese:
chicago! and not
saturday afternoon (9/19) we arrived in chicago to meet julia’s friend, maria at her school – school of the art institute of chicago. we visited her for a bit in her dorm room on the 14th (!!) floor of 7 w madison ave. very nice. then she went to her class and julia and i walked around chicago a bit:
then, i left julia in chicago to catch up with maria and i headed outta town to find a place to camp. the internet gave me two options. one, bliss woods nature preserve in kane county, about an hour west, and illinois beach state park, about an hour north. i liked the name, so i chose bliss woods, and headed west. omg! chicago traffic is the absolute worst!! only complicated more by endless road construction. nevertheless, i finally reached kane country and bliss woods, only to find out, just before dark, that the park closes at dark, and no one around to ask if there was camping. so i ended up car camping in the holiday inn parking lot (!!). you know, it wasnt bad at all. well lit and safe, and no one bothered me. i woke early (6 am) and headed back towards chicago and then north to illinois beach state park. arriving late morning, i found this place to be bliss. a beautiful campground right on the lake michigan. so i chose my spot,
stopped at the piggly wiggly (hee hee) 
i found this very interesting on the beach:
stopping in on family 9/17 - 19
its been since wednesday last week (i think) that i have updated, because finding free wifi on the road is not so easy.
we left pittsburgh on thurdsay and travelled west towards coloumbus ohio. julia was nursing a cold :o( , which i soon caught. as of this writing (now monday) i am feeling good (except for driver’s leg, or whatever its’ call when your legs hurt from driving too much), and julia is better.
we stopped just east of columbus to visit my uncle ralph. we stayed only a little over an hour and didnt spend the night because they were nursing the flu. i did, however, take a few shots of his 150 year old white oak tree. check it:
we drove west a bit and found a little outta the way camp ground – crawford’s campground & market. we drove in at just after 6 pm, and sheryl was just closing up the market for the day. i asked if we could camp the night and she said “sure” i asked her how much was camping and she said “aww, dont worry about it” i asked if we could have some firewood, and she said “sure”. so we went into town and got some milk for cereal in the morning and stopped and had supper at sonic, then went back to crawford’s and made a nice fire, and slept peacefully. oh…if you see someone without a smile…give them yours :o)
we woke up early and helped ourselves to VERY nice hot showers there, and on leaving stopped at the market stand and i tried to give sheryl (she was wearing her crawford’s campground shirt that said her name was “giggles”) some money for the night, and she just giggled and smiled and said “you just have yourself a nice trip and be happy for the free things”. that made my day, yep.
travelling on to indianapolis on friday, we spent the night at my sister, vienna’s. her and her husband dennis have such a nice place there with their huge dog, ozzie – the prince of dogness. we sat outside in the back yard and visited, telling stories, laughing hysterically, smoking cigars, watching the neighbor fend off the ducks that go after his bird seeds, and enjoying the beautiful weather. she keeps a nice little garden there. so, we spent the night and left in the morning, after she packed us up with a case of water, some cereal & milk, and some nice brownies :o) – thanks my nanny!
lack of internet!
at this writing it is now thrusday afternoon, september 24. i have been lucky to find windows live writer, which is an offline blog writing software that was already pre-installed on my laptop! so i have been writing posts to my blog, but have been unable to actually publish them online. so, by the time you read this, whenever i can publish it, it will accompany all the posts i have been writing since last week.
just so you know :o)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
indiana countryside
so, we leave vienna’s saturday morning on our way to chicago. indiana is corn, and soy…and corn and soy.
but vienna had said…wait til you get to wolcott….
wow! the benton county wind farm!!! what a sight to see! those things are huge! it was surreal to see SO many huge wind mills, kinda took your breath away to see such a sight, and to realize the great work those things do:
then, we just HAD to stop at the albanese candy factory – home of the world’s best gummies. below are some pictures. i didnt realize you are not allowed to take pictures of their factory, but i did, until i got in trouble for doing just that – oops! it’s a pretty cool place with a gigantic candy store, a view into the factory, and even a chocolate water fountain-type thingy that flows chocolate from the ceiling!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
running around pittsburgh!
julia and i spent the day running around pittsburgh. do you have any idea how hilly pittsburgh is??! trust me, it is hilly, very hilly.
we left bun & gator’s this morning and headed across the river towards the strip district. cool area! lots of neat shops & stuff. we had breakfast at deluca’s (best breakfast in town!). food coma, deux. trust me on that, too.
these photos are dedicated to renee in #501:
then wandered round to see some other things in the strip district:
mon amiee has the funnest chocolates!! bacon chocolate? i am not kidding!!!
then, it was off to bloomfield. bloomfield is an older part of town, with interesting shops, and a hometown city kinda feel with the sandwich shop and the big idea.
the afternoon took us to the southside for a walkabout:
the day has ended at pete & pam’s in pitcairn. they took us out to dinner at the super deluxe chinese buffet. then we went back to their awesome house and their awesome dogs:
put a call into uncle ralph to see if all is good to stay the night with them near columbus oh tomorrow night. seems he is at work until after midnight, so we will be up late until i can talk with him, then it’s west towards columbus – yes that is 200 miles tomorrow :o)
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
we ride!
yesterday officially began this 100 days roadtrip! yay!!
we left the farm, the hills, the chickens and said goodbye and sanks for the hospitality…
then, we rode…
through pennsylvania’s laurel highlands, stopping at ohiopyle state park . this place is SO gorgeous!! julia remarked that it would be a great place for a first date. in addition to the beautiful scenery, we saw folks with picnic suppers, and one couple sitting in each other’s arms, watching the waterfalls. great place for a date, indeed.
some more interesting things we saw on the way to pittsburgh:
great shots by julia entering pittsburgh yesterday:
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