[paully dub]

Originally posted by yours truly:
I take it you have some good Black Hills/ Plains type pics of South Dakota. My dad was born in Deadwood, by the way, and last time I was there ( ages ago ) I was shocked to see how much the town had changed - gambling galore. Did you see Wild Bill Hickock get shot?

South Dakota - the Black Hills especially has loads to see, tons of stuff like caves, snakefarms, buffalo ranches and such off the highway -r eal hokey fun!

Now that we're talking about SD, I'm asking again...

[Demonhood]

We traveled thru the Black Hills fairly quickly in order to get through before darkness fell (which would make avoiding the deer harder). So I only have a few pictures from that area (would have liked to stick around longer, but we had places to go).
We basically just drove through Deadwood too. All the buildings nestled into the mountains was pretty cool. But yeah, odd to see quite so many gambling signs (thought we were rid of them after we left Nevada). Saw the Wild Bill billboard nearby, but that's about it. And all my friends that watch the HBO series 'Deadwood' were excited to hear that I passed thru it.

Definitely a state with a lot more to explore.

[Demonhood]

South Dakota - The only Dakota you need to know.

We started off our S.D. adventure driving up through Wyoming and entering SD through the Black Hills Forest. Pretty impressive. We didn't have time to stop (altho we did, repeatedly, in order not to kill 40 deer that crossed our path), but we saw enough to know this place had a lot to offer.

In the morning we roamed about Rapid City looking for the Dinosaur Park. We found it.

This is one of the dinosaurs. He's a bit ragged, a bit depressed, maybe even a bit hungover. Not all that impressive really. But it had a good view of Rapid City, and some kids that were up there at the same time seemed to enjoy it. So that made it a bit better.


Afterwards we headed (amid repeated 'severe thunderstorm watches') to Mt.Rushmore. The fog was pretty thick driving up there, and we tried not to get our hopes up. When we arrived at the view platform, everyone was on the edge, looking up at....whiteness. D'oh!
But after half an hour of walking the paths up to the mountain, it began to clear (the picture above is about 5 minutes before it totally cleared up).

On the other side of the state, we got to check out the corn palace:

The entire outside is, as you can imagine, covered in corn. The amazing thing is, they redo it every single year. Takes them a few months to remove the old stuff and outline the walls for the new (think 'color by numbers'). But by fall they have an entirely new exterior.

On our way out of the state we stayed in Sioux Falls. And this, you might have guessed, is part of the falls:

This picture is actually part of a stitch I'm putting together. But that's not ready yet. These falls were in an industrial area, but the surrounding park was nice enough that you kind of overlooked that.

So, we bid a fond farewell to this bountiful state, avoided a thunderstorm that scared the hell out of me while driving, and went into the land where soda is pop: Minnesota.

[lil'babykitten]

[dodo_nutter]

wow....only $200 for fuel!! I figured it would cost me about �340 (bout $600) to do that in my car in the UK and thats only got a 1.2 engine!! But then again where the h�ll are you gonna go and drive 3000 miles in the UK!!?? i think that would be called a very boring (and slow) trip around the M25 (joke for people in the UK, and for anyone who doesnt no the M25 is a ring-road/car park around london)

Very cool pictures btw, keep them coming!!

[voodoo]

Originally posted by Demonhood:
[*]Mullets are alive and well and living in Wyoming & South Dakota.

Mullets are alive and well period! In fact making a comeback as we speak <voodoo writes while stroking hiss mullet>

[voyageur]

Originally posted by Demonhood:
This is one of the dinosaurs. He's a bit ragged, a bit depressed, maybe even a bit hungover.

[dodo_nutter]

mullets should be taken out and shot.....so should that dinosaur for that matter. Were they all like that!!??

[Demonhood]

Originally posted by dodo_nutter:
Were they all like that!!??

the rest were a little bit better (more massive, less depressed, less 'limp tail' syndrome).
they looked like they were made of paper mache.

[as2]

Originally posted by dodo_nutter:
I think that would be called a very boring (and slow) trip around the M25 (joke for people in the UK, and for anyone who doesnt no the M25 is a ring-road/car park around london)

It's oh so much fun driving round the m25, especially on a friday afternoon (or should I say night by the time you get home!)

Cool pictures though...

I don't mind driving, and have to do a lot of it for my job, but 3000 miles in a week seems inhuman!

[dodo_nutter]

Personally i would rather walk than go on the M25 on a friday afternoon/evening/night!!! Probably get places faster.

Did you hit any big jams on your travels Demonhood?? Im still impressed with 3000miles in a week. Did you actually get any sleep!?

[Demonhood]

we got some sleep
we really only hit traffic once we entered Chicago. the rest of the journey was pretty smooth. we averaged around 9-10 hours of driving each day, so we still managed to rest and eat a bit of food as we went along.

i'll be putting Minnesota up next. it'll be brief, since the only reason we stopped there was to eat lunch and gas up. not that there was anything wrong with Minnesota, it's just that the more interesting cities seemed to be in the northern section of the state (we passed thru the bottom).

[nredman]

Originally posted by Demonhood:

South Dakota - The only Dakota you need to know.

So, we bid a fond farewell to this bountiful state, avoided a thunderstorm that scared the hell out of me while driving, and went into the land where soda is pop: Minnesota.

i am from North Dakota, so screw you! just kidding North Dakota is very boring.

I live in Minnesota now and i call it soda... so there

[Demonhood]

Minnesota - Where soda is pop.

I don't have a lot to say about Minnesota. Well, besides the fact that it's a lot of fun to say it with an accent. We went thru the bottom of the state (only stopping for lunch), so we didn't get to any big cities. Minnesota basically reminded me of South Dakota, except with more farms, more silos, and lots of square-shaped patches of trees.

We did stop to take a look at these prairie dogs though. Cute buggers.


And if you ever want to exercise your hot water bottle on skates while wearing your muumuu, Minnesota is definitely the place to do it.


That was one of our last stops before we crossed the Mississippi and entered the land of ca$h: Wisconsin.

[CharlesS]

^ Well, Minnesota has some really pretty scenery in the northern part, with all the lakes. I've been there before; the problem of course is the mosquitos and biting files - they are everywhere. Be sure to bring lots of bug spray!

This is why when I am describing a really, really unstable program, I like to say "more bugs than the state of Minnesota."

[Xeo]

Growing up in Southern Minnesota, I can confirm that there is nothing to see down here. I seriously can't think of anything worth seeing. Wait... if you drove through on I-90, you went through Austin, MN (where I'm from... basically). You could have, and should have, stopped to see the SPAM museum. Can't go wrong with that. Learn how SPAM is made and the history behind it. Yep, Austin, MN is SPAM Town, USA. You must have seen the big yellow billboards while driving through with catchy phrases like "C'mon, you know you wanna." and "Who's laughing now?" (My guess is that the latter is in reference to the fact that many thought the museum going up was a big joke a few years ago, but it's still going strong, so they have "the last laugh" or something. I dunno, I just can't figure out what else it means.)

But that's it, really. The northern half is much cooler.

[voyageur]

The only part of MN I've ever visited was the southern part, but I thought Northfield was a very pretty little college town. Friendly, unpretentious people too.

[ReggieX]

Wyoming is the state where they have signs for towns that read "Population: 2"

I drove with my Dad from Denver to Toronto a few Christmases ago, and the big surprise for me was going from Nebraska to Iowa: Iowa got hilly real fast. I blame the glaciers.

And upon unprovoked consultation with others, we have determined that Gary, IN, is the armpit of the USA.

[Demonhood]

Wisconsin: Land of Ca$h and Cheese.

So after not seeing a whole lot in Minnesota, we rolled into Wisconsin. The border is right on the Mississippi, so we stopped to make a half dozen phone calls, sample some cheese (they have it at the visitor's center), and take a look at the river.

The mighty Mississippi

I didn't see any Twain characters rafting down it, so I was sorely disappointed.

We were hungry so we went to Madison for some food. Since I know the world is a small place, I was on Ca$h-watch the entire time. But the gods were not with me that day.

I did have a few observations about Madison though. It was the first college town that we'd seen in...a long long while. So that was a nice change. I also noticed that none of the pedestrians paid any attention whatsoever to the crosswalk signs. And the drivers on the freeway never learned that it's wise to keep space between the car in front of you in order to avoid an accident.

My favorite Wisconsin sign:

"Lanes swerving to avoid murder scene. Film at 11"

Of course, it wouldn't be Wisconsin without cheese. So we took a quick visit to the Cheese Castle. It was more of a one story building than a castle. And there were no archers firing gouda arrows from the parapets. And they had sausage and postcards and trinkets, not just cheese. And the building was made of some kind of rock and wood. Lame.

Cheese Castle:


The next day was our last traveling day, so we had to make it through 3 states. We started the only way we could, with the land of toll roads: Illinois.

[york28]

Best thread I've read in a while.

And as far as airports go, I don't really mind Midway at all. The times that I've been there there was no standing around waiting to get through security, and the planes did their thing, so I was happy.

[Demonhood]

Illinois: Toll roads for everybody!
Indiana: Where the streets have no name.
Ohio: Where buying "mexican" food can be hazardous to your health.

Since we basically just drove through Illinois and Indiana, I've lumped them all together with our destination state. That intersection, btw, is from Indiana. One state where we had little difficulty getting lost.

We needed to get through to Ohio all in one day. Not really a problem. Our only big decision was whether or not to take the toll roads that hugged the great lakes, or to go further down to avoid having to pay. It turns out that we're cheap, but we're also fed up with driving at this point. So the short expensive route won.

I know very little about Chicago. I know very little about Illinois. One thing I do know, however, is that when I pay to drive on a road, I expect the road to not be torn up. Now, I've seen worse, but I don't normally pay close attention to the condition of the free roads.


We were only in Illinois for maybe two hours before we arrived in Indiana. Our cheapness kicked in again and we made an attempt to bypass the toll road (which charged you based on where you exited, unlike the Chicago one). In doing so, we got a bit lost and ended up driving thru Amish country. I thought they lived in Pennsylvania and Farrely brother movies. Turns out I was wrong. And they love when you take their picture. So here's one of the many I got:


Here's a shot that turned out remarkably scenic for being shot from a car moving 50mph:


As we approached the endgame, TiVo bonded with bikers passing us in Ohio (on another toll road):


And that wraps things up. There's no return pictures since it was a one way journey for one of us. A bit anticlimactic, but they didn't have a parade waiting for us in Ohio like I expected. That'll teach me a lesson about getting my hopes up.

Hope you enjoyed the show.

[anthonyvthc]

Looks like you had an awesome time. I recently made almost the complete opposite trip that you did. I just moved to Las Vegas from New Hampshire. My girlfriend and I did the trip in 4 days.
Interesting note: as we pulled into Las Vegas city limits (AKA Sin City), my odometer rolled over to 66,600 miles! Weird.

[CharlesS]

What a coincidence; earlier today I was thinking of digging this thread up and asking why you quit updating it. I was going to ask if Ca$h showed up and stole your car or something, and that's why it stopped in Wisconsin.

[Zimphire]

I live right here and you didn't stop by ?



Pffft

[Demonhood]

anthonyvthc: that's a pretty fast trip. at least you ended up in the exciting part of Nevada. travel up the state if you ever want to be bored. or hide bodies.

CharlesS: hehe. it's odd to travel through a state on the lookout for an SVX and someone you've only seen pictures of online. i kept picturing those photoshopped Matrix and Rebel Without a Clue images when i was scanning the crowds in Madison.

zimph: if i would have stopped to see MacNNers along the way the trip would have taken 3 weeks

besides, i was up in Bowling Green. maybe next time. i mean, i missed a whole mess of states along the way. although i hear they're entirely populated by livestock.

[Zimphire]

I know, I was just giving you a hard time.

I really didn't expect you to even set foot in WV.

You've seen the movie "Wrong Turn" right?