(07/04/12) A very happy 4th of July!

A very happy 4th of July to everyone! Our fireworks over Mt. Rushmore that we had come this direction and left exactly when we did specifically to see were CANCELLED! Fire danger out west right now is categorized as "extreme". We have passed highway alert signboards noting that "throwing cigarettes from your car is illegal". Wow.

We've been up to so much in the past few days, I will try to give a brief recap...

We woke up in Indiana on July 2nd and began the great trek across the rest of Indiana, Illinois then Iowa. It was just corn, corn and more corn, and only once in a while, soybeans. 

George and I talked a lot about the food supply in this country. I was having a hard time wrapping my mind around the hungry kids at Hillcrest Elementary after seeing so much food right next to the road. We both knew the US donates food to other nations, but could not figure out where the rest of the food is being used. So, I called my mom and she was brief, giving me an assignment for the iPad as we went across the prairie. I was to Google where the corn goes, how much corn it takes to make a pound of beef and how much beef the average consumer uses annually. The PETA website was helpful, so were some NIH and USDA sites. Apparently, it takes 60ish pounds of grain (corn) to make a pound of beef. The average person consumes 65 pounds of beef each year. Yikes.

I knew the proportion was big, but that was more than I had expected. So, then I questioned my red meat intake. Can I do with less? Will my cutback really make a global difference? George and I did the math to find out how many pounds of corn come out of an acre. My corn (for beef) usage seems very small. It was 0.0018 of an acre that could be saved by my beeflessness. What to do?

I have gone meat-free before in college and after for short periods of time (6 months or less), usually only to be bounced out of the bandwagon by one of my dad’s hand patted burgers. Sigh. Can I make a life commitment to this? I was impressed with George’s offer to consume less red meat. We’ll see what happens. Stay tuned.

We stayed in Sioux City that night, cooking dinner at the site, more grilled corn, a Coleman instant meal and apple slices. Slept well and we were on the road early for another long drive toward Rapid City, SD. On the way, we drove past countless rest stops and pull offs that each had a geocache on premises. We drove past nearly all of them. It was pure torture. We could have gotten them all and had 100+ finds for the day, but then we never would have made it to the Badlands.

Gorgeous Badlands! The more National Parks and traveling in general we do, the more geological similarities among places we are starting to notice. There were hoodoos – just like Bryce Canyon. The rainbow rock striation reminded us of the Grand Canyon. We made our obligatory stop at the Visitor’s Center. George played “guess which?” at one of the exhibits. He examined fossilized teeth to determine if the creature was a carnivore or a veggie-potamus. I like the pressed flower collection of every park specimen. But the thing we liked most? The water fountain! We had dragged our empty gallon jug inside with us to fill up, as per usual. These fountains had a counter on them that as you filled, they showed how many plastic bottles you were saving from the landfill by using your own container. I felt like re-using was cool. This culture seems to be enmeshed in the west in general. Last summer, when we visited Yellowstone, they had posh fill up stations that would have made Starbucks jealous. Is it just easier to be eco-minded out here?

Dinner last night at the Firehouse Brewing Company in Rapid City, SD. Yes, we had dinner out. And I ate a burger. I am such a hypocrite! Perhaps it was my denial burger…

This morning, we were up a little later than planned. The alarm was drowned out by the Joey’s fan. On the road, we headed toward Crazy Horse first. George did some crazy driving manuvers when we spied the first Coffee Hut of the trip, basically a shed with pull ups on both sides and they make good stuff for you. He loves the “Milky Way”. He craved them all year long after getting a few hits of the good stuff last summer. Coffee in hand, down the highway we went, admiring the beautiful Black Hills scenery. I was wholly unprepared for Crazy Horse. In my humble opinion, their museum of Native American artifacts puts our National Museum of the American Indian to SHAME. I spent quite a bit of time in the vendor area and bought some gifts and a treat for myself. We were even lucky enough to be on site on a day they were blasting. It was a small crack/pop and a lot of smoke and then the sound wave hit us – BOOM! Ah, that’s right, light travels faster than sound.

After we left Crazy Horse, we went back up the highway to BearCountry, a drive through safari park. I got some great pictures and we liked looking at the animals. Every single one looked wiped out and George liked the Arctic Wolves and I liked the Babyland area. The baby bears were all together in one huge enclosure. They were all exhausted in the heat of the afternoon and were sleeping and suckling on the ears of others. They also were making this high pitched purring grunting noise as they nursed. It was adorable overload.

Mount Rushmore was neat in that seeing it in person really IS different than seeing a picture. I know that this can be said for things like the Grand Canyon and the Redwood Forest, but this surprised me. Going beneath the viewpoint down some stairs and into the exhibit gave us some interesting insights. While onsite, we did an earthcache that made us explore the displays fully while on the hunt for answers to the geology questions. Did you know that originally, Thomas Jefferson was to be the president on the left, not George Washington? The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, (we need to name our first-born after this guy!) determined that the rock was too weak and just moved Jefferson over on Washington’s other side and kept carving. Neat!

Back into the car and we were headed back to the Badlands. Spotted some more bighorn sheep as well as some bison! We located 6 individuals and then a whole herd of 50+ critters. George spotted the first one way out on the prairie and we confirmed our find with the binoculars and the spotting scope. Prairie dogs were running all over the place. They are kinda cute, for pests. Did you know they have plague? I am sure I learned this somewhere along the line in school, but I apparently jettisoned it along with countless other tidbits that I will regret as I age.

As the sun was setting, we left the park and drove a short distance to Wall Drug in the town of Wall, SD. We made a purchase and got a bumper sticker for free. I can’t wait to put it on the Joey. It was South of the Border (all that) AND a bag of chips!

Today was a very long day but we really accomplished a lot. Fueled by the Coffee Huts and Sonic Limeade, we both remarked that we didn’t think one could get this much done in a day! Off to bed now, for tomorrow, we are back on the wide, open road.