Mid-June Adventures
I'm finally settled enough in my Provo, Utah home to have visitors!
Besides family, my friends from Venezuela, and others, I had part of my Pandemic in Palo Alto family over. Jessie and Elsie Kportufe also moved to Utah when I did. We ate, laughed, and played Bananagrams, just like we did in 2020 while sheltering at home!
My daughter Emily Taylor was determined to visit her last two U.S. states, North Dakota and Minnesota, so she invited me to ride along....and it was a lot of driving for 6 days! But so fun!
Utah was (is still) green as we left Provo, but we traveled on over long straight roads through dry Wyoming.
We stopped at Martin's Cove, where in 1856, the Martin Handcart (cheaper than covered wagon) company, composed of many European immigrants, many of whom were new members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, were camped, freezing and starving as they crossed the Sweetwater River of Wyoming, too late in the season. Brigham Young sent a rescue party from Salt Lake City. Only 13 died at the Cove.
We had a nice visit and KFC dinner with Taylor relatives in Alcova, near Caspar, Wyoming, and then headed to our Airbnb in Caspar.
Aaron, Kelly (celebrating her 17th birthday with the longest day of driving...7+hours), her friend Aubree, Lucie, and Emily at breakfast in the Airbnb. We crossed into the Black Hills of South Dakota, then North Dakota with endless acres of farmland, silos, long trains waiting to load grain and other products.
We stopped to admire Salem Sue, the nation's largest Holstein cow, created in 1974, in Salem, N.D. on the only hill around.
The Platte is a large river which we crossed several times.
Sickie's Garage has tasty food!
After farmland for miles, we were so happy to arrive for our two-night stay at the beautiful Grand Lodge (est. 100 years ago) at Nisswa, Minnesota. It is on Gull Lake, one of the 11,000+. We were lucky to get a small room in the hotel there, but were delighted with the included swimming pools, beach, boating, and very friendly people. It is a very popular Minnesota summer vacation tradition for many families. And the weather was perfect: not hot or humid as feared.
Aaron found toads and tadpoles, but for all of us, a highlight was the Chocolate Ox ice cream and candy shop.
Paul Bunyon is alive and well! Old fire engine in front of our hotel.
From Minnesota we traveled on to Sioux Falls, largest city, but not the capital (which is Pierre) of S.Dakota, close to Minnesota and Iowa,where it was hot and humid.
We crossed the Missouri River and arrived at wonderful "Bear Country" where we drove through a quite natural preserve with arctic and timber wolves, coyotes, bobcats, big horn sheep, pronghorn antelope, reindeer and lots of bears eating fish, playing, scratching their backs. The Black Hills and Badlands of S. Dakota are gorgeous!
Our next stop was Mount Rushmore with the very impressive carvings of four U.S. presidents. Boston sculptor Gutzon Borglum (of Danish descent), chose these four for, in simple terms, the following contributions to our nation: George Washington: Father of the new nation; Jefferson: the Declaration of Independence, negotiation of the Louisiana Purchase, and responsibility for the development of the Western U.S.;Theodore Roosevelt: built the Panama Canal, developed a strong military, instrumental in winning the Spanish-American War; Abraham Lincoln: saved the Union, and advocated for the Sioux.
We couldn't leave the beautiful Badlands without some time to see the ongoing creation of Crazy Horse. Henry Sitting Bull had admired the sculpture of Paderewski by Korczak Ziolkowski at the 1939 World's Fair and others of his sculptures, and invited him to create a fitting memorial to the spirit of Lakota Sioux leader Crazy Horse (and to other native Americans). He began work in 1949 work which was/is continued by his wife, 10 children, and students of the Indian University of North America (on site). It is gigantic (563'x641') and impossible without dynamite and perseverance! No end date in sight.
We were among the few on the road that evening through gorgeous green hills and were treated to a magnificent sunset as we drove to our last night's lodging in Lusk, Wyoming. We loved our omelettes the next morning before our LONG ride home. We stopped in Heber, Utah, to have fresh thick raspberry shakes at Granny's.
We made it! The desk I ordered 2+ months ago arrived today, so I was happy to get a bit more organized and settled in my new home! Now I need to tackle my yard. I am so blessed to have a nice home, memories of an interesting trip, and a great family.
