Wisconsin, eh?

We continued our tour of the midwest with a trip to Wisconsin. Because no American road trip is complete without cheese. So much cheese. 

We started the trip with a visit to House on the Rock. There was so much more there than I ever expected. We opted for the full self guided tour- estimated to take 3-31/2 hours. They were not kidding, we spent nearly 3 hours exploring things and could have easily spent several more if we stopped to look at every single thing. The tour is divided into three sections- the actual house, and two different galleries. 

The House: The guy who built this was obviously short, because Mitch and I were about as tall as you could be to comfortably navigate the place. It was full of dark corners and seating areas. I have no idea how big the house actually is, but it felt enormous as we twisted and turned around corners and through narrow hallways. Probably the most interesting part of the house, and definitely Mitch’s favorite part, was the infinity room. It was designed to look like it never ended, and the effect lands. It is fashioned as a huge spire sticking out of the house with windows on both sides at an angle. As it goes further into the abyss, and off the rock, it gets narrower, until it gets to the point that a smaller turret comes off of it at an angle. Total its well over 100 feet sticking straight out and off the rock, with no supports under it. Unique doesn't begin to describe it, but that really describes the entire place.

The Galleries: This guy collected EVERYTHING. So many dolls- all over the place. Circus dioramas. Model trains. Organs and Organ pipes. He also had many instruments that were wired to play themselves with the help of various electric parts. The instruments played a specific tune and were scattered throughout- sometimes as a solo unit, sometimes with up to 30 others, arranged like an orchestra. Sometimes they were accompanied by mannequins dressed like dancers, other times they were in a tucked away corner.

And then there was the whale. I’m not sure what the whale was doing there, but it was. And it was being attacked by a giant squid. These enormous sculptures (papier mache wonders?) were over two stories high. And surrounded by large models of ships and various nautical memorabilia. Each room was like this- a theme present, and then the most insane collection of items collected and displayed.

My favorite was the carousels. The world’s largest carousel is apparently there- it was defiantly very big, and at least 3 levels, filled with dozens of different animals and a wide variety of chimeras- but no horses. The walls in the room were also covered in carousel animals and horses. And multiple smaller carousels were around the gallery, one of which had tiny horses and held only dolls. The only downside was that you cant’ ride the carousels- so no caroselfie this time.

After the House on the Rock, we drove up to the Wisconsin Dells- home to the most waterparks in one area. We stayed at Mount Olympus, in an older motel they had bought and painted blue and white to indicate it was part of Mount Olympus. Our room was decorated with a lovely, wall sized, portrait of Poseidon on his horse, emerging from the sea. So that was a plus. Our stay included admission to the water park as well. 

The highlight of the Dells was the relaxation and recharge time, however. But there was time spent in waterpark. They had 3 lazy rivers and I tried them all, several times. There were also two wave pools, a bunch of slides, both tube and body, I tried a few of the smaller slides, designed for the elementary school set, and then returned to my river. Mitch tried a few more slides, reaching up to the middle school level and reporting back on what I could handle without injuring my back further. Our day in the water was topped off with delivery Italian food consumed while sitting in bed. Not a bad way to unwind.

The House on the Rock was not terribly well lit, so my attempt at photos is not great, but here are some to give you a sliver of an idea of all the weird things it had.

The first of so, so many carousel animals

 The Infinity Room! 

 This is what it looks like from outside

 the roof of the infinity room

 For your pill needs...

 There were dozens of these type machines around. Mitch is apparently an uncontrollable lover.

 I'm hot stuff.

 Thats a giant squid (or octopus? it's debatable) 

 Confirmed: Out of Control

 Still sexy. 

 

Carousels everywhere. So many horses. Literally hundreds adorned the walls. 

Magical musical displays.  

 These were all over the grounds and I want one. A giant pot covered in dragons! 

Minnesota, don't cha know

After our attempt at sleeping on the side of the road, we finally made it to the great city of Minneapolis. Let’s get this out of the way upfront: we did not go to the Mall of America. I am completely ok with this- been there, done that, not terribly interested in returning. And lets be honest, we cannot fit another thing in our car at this point.

We did however do some other fun things and saw a LOT of people in just a few days. We stayed with college friends, and former roommate, of Mitch’s: Brent and Sarah. They were fantastic hosts. Sarah may have missed her calling as a tour guide, because she was full of interesting local history and tidbits. We saw the Stone Bridge, historic Flour Mills, including Gold Medal (you know, the kind you probably have in your cabinet now- assuming you found the name brand on sale or were feeling spending that one day at the grocery). 

We also saw a bunch of Mitch’s family- two uncles, two aunts, two cousins, and grandparents (also in a pair!). We got to see his grandparents new apartment and had dinner with the whole group followed by lunch the following day with just his grandparents. Everyone was lovely and we got to eat at the very exotic “Perkins”. 

We closed out the weekend with a celebration on the 4th of July at the St Paul Saints, minor league baseball, game. The Saints know how to entertain- they have a giant fuzzy, pink pig that walks around as well as a live pig as their mascot. I’m not sure why, it just is, some questions are better left unasked. They also do various activities between each inning including races, tire pushing, and quadcopter flying. They also had the best selection of food and beer I’ve ever seen at a ballpark. Way to go, St Paul, you know how to draw a crowd. The evening was of course topped off with fireworks that we watched from the field. And in true Minnesota fashion, we had to ask for the lights to be turned off by shouting in union "Excuse me, can you please turn off the lights?" (as promoted by the announcers). Thank you, oh so polite, Minnesotans. Happy Birthday America- I ate a lot in your honor.

Lunch with the Grandparents

Not real beer, but oh so delicious

 For the first time this trip, I actually got a picture of everyone! Brent is not dressed patriotically, you may draw your own conclusions as to why...

The Floating heads of Mount Rushmore

We left Wyoming, and continued the drive East- to South Dakota! The goal of South Dakota was to see Mt Rushmore. I’ve heard mixed reviews, but what else are you going to see when you’re driving through South Dakota? So Rushmore it was.

It was a few hours from where we stayed, but we figured we’d stop there and then trek to Minneapolis, our next destination. We under estimated (or rather Siri underestimated) the amount of time it takes to drive across South Dakota. It’s a big state!

We saw the rolling hills, what signs told me were the badlands, and we got to see a small herd of Big Horn Sheep- the high light of the driving portion of the day for sure! They were just hanging out next to the road, which seems unwise to me, but they didn’t seem to be worried. 

We also hit a bird. It literally flew into the grill. That brings the kill count to 3- this car is insatiable! 

We finally made it to Rushmore. It is indeed a large rock with heads carved into it. Smaller than I imagined. We walked the Presidential trail which warned it was “Very Strenuous” but since we saw a lot of old people walking it, figured it wouldn't be that bad. Apparently Very Strenuous is just code for “A Whole Lot of Stairs”. It did allow some better views of the floating heads, and they seemed a bit more impressive the closer we got. We also got to see some of the original models they used and some other fun history. 

We made it back to the top, up the approximately 1 million uneven stone steps, did the obligatory gift shop scan, found a great magnet, and then bid adieu to our past Presidents and got back on the road.

Shortly after leaving Rushmore we saw signs for the "Cosmos Mystery Area". Since we're basically pros after the Oregon Mystery House, we decided a stop was in order. It was very similar! They did a lot of the same demonstrations- showing a level area and then showing people appearing to get taller or shorter. We even did one where we each stood at the end of a cement slab. I walked to Mitch and the tip of my nose was even with his lips. I walked back and he walked to me and now the bridge of my nose touched his lips. I can't explain it, but it's weird and fun. Apparently there are about a dozen of these around the country, so we're on the look out for them now. Then back to the car...

As we drove, there were roughly 500 signs for Wall Drug along the way, so I decided we had to stop. I had no idea what Wall Drug was other than famous. It’s a huge store! Easily 1 full city block. It sells junk, fudge, souvenirs, and even has a restaurant in it. There was an apothecary, but I don’t think it is currently in use, and I did not notice any sort of actual pharmacy services. Weird, since it is billed as a “Drug Store”… 

We wondered a bit, saw an animatronic Dr talk about his tonic, got some food from the restaurant, Mitch got a mystery chicken egg with prize inside, and then we got back on the road.

And more driving. We decided that, even though we were likely going to get to Minneapolis around 4am, it was silly to get a hotel for a few hours. Especially since it was a holiday weekend and even the cheap motels were expensive. So we pulled over to a rest area and attempted to sleep for a few hours, in part to actually sleep, and in part to not wake up our kind hosts at 4am.

This was not our best idea. The car is packed so full the seats only recline about 2 inches. Not ideal for sleeping. And the rest area had a lot of street lights. Good for safety, bad for sleeping. But we made do, and said so long o South Dakota and hello to Minnesota in the wee hours of the morning. 

 Big Horns!

 Rushmore Selfie- more floating heads.

 Oh hey guys. 

 We found a Mystery Area!

Mitch is short.

 But getting taller. 

 Wall Drug- no drugs to be found. 

 But there are some cowboys.

 And Annie Oakley! All Annies are redheads- fact. 

 It's a golden coin! Win!

 This lovely shop is across the street. Draw your own conclusions...

Wyoming, Part 2: The Drive

The drive seemed to be off to a good start- rainbow, herd of buffalo, very few other people around, and I had agreed that Mitch could drive as far as he wanted. Mitch likes night driving, I hate it. But we were headed toward Mount Rushmore, which was about 8 hours away, and had gotten started later than expected due to Nike Store fun. We drove the rest of the Yellowstone loop and exited the park with out incident. Then headed to the booming metropolis of Cody, Wyoming, the nearest town.

We figured Cody would have some food and gas and whatever else we needed. We got in about 11pm. And it looked like a ghost town. On a Friday night, at 11pm, the activity in Cody was none. There appeared to be one bar with about 10 cars out front. I’m not sure what the kids in Cody do on a Friday night- but it’s not be in or around downtown. We managed to find one drive thru that was still open, so at least we got some food.

After Cody, we hit the big state high way- all of two lanes, with no lights. I was not thrilled. We listened to some podcasts- at this point we’ve finished both seasons of Serial and have gotten into Nightvale. 

The road got windier as we continued. Apparently Wyoming is into windy roads, because that’s all there was. We went up and down and around basically every hill or mountain in the area from what I could tell.

And then we got roadkill number two. Number one was a squirrel I hit in Oregon- small, noticeable bump, but nothing to worry about. Number two was a raccoon. The seemingly suicidal raccoon ran into the road as we came around another bend. Mitch tried to swerve, but raccoon was determined and ran under the tires. It was a very large thump this time. Very large. That raccoon was not a small guy. We did not stop to check on his welfare because it was midnight in rural Wyoming, and let’s be real- he was definitely dead.

As i noted this was now the second kill in the (prior to this brand new) car, Mitch commented that “he has a taste for blood”. We’re going to have to watch this one; stone cold killer. 

There were also approximately a million deer on the road. This became the most stressful drive of my life, watching for deer- and spotting them every other minute- and making sure they didn’t run in front of the car. More than once we had to stop because a deer was standing in the middle of the road. We tried to stop in some tiny town, but every hotel was closed. Yes, closed. So we kept driving, and kept spotting deer, until we came to Buffalo, Wyoming and the beautiful sight that was a Motel 6 that was open! I was so happy to see that crappy hotel and crawl into that rock hard bed. 

The car was not quite as lucky. The raccoon left his mark and broke a piece of the bumper and cracked some weird things under it. This was remedied, temporarily, by some Buy 1, Get 1 Free gas station duct tape. The car is looking good… 

 

 

 

Wyoming, Part 1: The Parks

We left Portland, after our excellent trip to the Nike store, and headed west. Along the old Oregon trail! I know this because they have conveniently posted signs telling you that you are on the old Oregon trail. And then we reminisced about how fun that game was, especially the hunting, and I let Mitch in on the girl secret- we named our characters after our friends, crushes, and disliked people. And then hoped the people we didn't like died. Casey had cholera? Full steam ahead!! Careful nursing, however, was applied to our crushes- if Colin was sick we stopped and got him medicine ASAP. It was a political game.

We made it to our first park, The Grand Tetons, and again whipped out our National Parks Pass and were granted admission. And they were breath taking. As we drove the views got better and better. The Teton Mountains towered over the valley we were in, some snow capped, all amazingly majestic. I could not get enough and probably said “they’re so beautiful” 100 times in the few miles we drove. We got to the Teton Lake Lodge, after I made Mitch swear the views there would be just as breath taking, because I wasn’t ready to let my mountains go yet and the road veered into a wooded area. He assured me they were spectacular, so we carried on. He was right, the mountains towering over the glistening lake were one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. 

We sat on the deck, ordered a Teton Lemonade (it’s made with bourbon- score!) and just took in the view. I could have stayed for days just looking at the mountains. Then we walked a short trail to the top of a hill, where the altitude became very noticeable with how hard I was breathing walking uphill. Admired the views some more and heard thunder, so headed back down.

While looking at the map the previous day I noticed that Yellowstone National Park is conveniently located right next to the Tetons. And figured, when in Wyoming… plus, Wyoming is not terribly high on my places to visit again (and it got lower as the night progressed, but more on that later), so I decided we needed to hit Yellowstone too. That meant leaving the Tetons, much to my dismay. I briefly considered skipping Yellowstone so I could have more time for mountain gazing, but then remembered to come back to Yellowstone meant coming back to Wyoming and that seemed highly unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Mitch drug me to the car and we headed north to Yellowstone. Along the way we saw a moose- making getting in the car seem worth it. The moose was a bit away from the road, but we stopped for a minute so I could squeal about it and take a quick picture. Moose sighting was a goal- check! Next on my list: Buffalo. 

We reached the Yellowstone entrance, flashed our pass, felt like VIPs again, and drove in. Yellowstone is a HUGE park. We drove for at least a dozen miles through the woods, admiring the hills, but overall being unimpressed with what is supposed to be spectacular. Finally, we got to the sign pointing to Old Faithful- a must stop for me. Then we drove another 15 miles before we finally got there. We parked, walked up, and saw a crowd of people sitting on benches staring at the ground. Clearly we were in the right place!

We sat down and then overheard a couple saying it should go off in about 10 minutes. So we settled in to wait. It ended up being closer to 20 minutes, but was worth the wait. It started small and then got huge- hot water shooting straight into the air and creating huge clouds of steam. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. After it finished, we walked around the boardwalk and saw another geyser go off- the Beehive geyser. Beehive is much less predictable than Old Faithful (the name should have been a giveaway here), and goes off anywhere from 4-5 days apart to 10 hours apart. So seeing it go was a definite win. We saw lots of small geysers, springs, fumaroles, and mud pits along the walk and each was incredible. The water in the springs was incredibly clear, but the ground around all of it was completely desolate and covered in suffer deposits. In some areas the sulfur smell was intense and the ground was yellow, other areas some grass was peaking through and you could see tracks of a large animal- likely a moose or elk. All in all, phenomenal.

After exploring the geysers we hit the road again, traversing the rest of the park before getting to the exit- another 30 miles or so. The drive was lovely and it rained a little- just enough for a beautiful rainbow. And as the sun was setting we saw a ton of cars stopped on the road and pulled over. As we got closer the reason became clear- an entire herd of Buffalo was sitting in the field next to the road. A few had crossed and likely blocked traffic for a bit. We pulled over, got out and watched them. Mitch again had to drag me back to the car because it was cold, and we had a very long drive ahead of us. I agreed because it was getting dark and harder to see them anyway. Buffalo sighting: check, check, check! 

Then the drive began…

That's a moose!

Teton Selfie

We found a Marmot! Likely a yellow bellied Marmot.

Old Faithful, as she prepared. 

And she's off!

Getting quite impressive here.

Beehive- we caught it just in time.

Some springs

Mud pits and sulfer deposits

Beehive, up close

Enjoying the view... awww

a lone buffalo

Not a bad view of the park.

Most of the herd! Some were off to the side, not wanting to come closer so I could get a better photo. 

I Love Portland

Portland is one of my favorite cities. This trip makes twice I've been, but it was love at first visit. Firstly it is home to two of my favorite people- Stephanie and Lesley. Fun fact: we all attended NAU at roughly the same time, had friends in common, and yet none of us knew each other. We met later in Tucson. I first met Stephanie while working in a DV shelter and then met Lesley through her. And I'm so glad, because they're both just the best. 

We also got to stay in the jaw droppingly beautiful mansion they are fortunate enough to call home. I cannot get enough of that house. It's like a life sized dollhouse! 

We only spent two nights in Portland, so we had to prioritize. We hit Blue Star Donuts and Salt and Straw (twice), window shopped along 23rd street, and checked out Powell's World of Books(and picked up a few things there as well). 

Stephanie was able to take a whole day of to hang out, but poor Lesley had to be a responsible adult and go to work. We had brunch at Slappy Cakes- a DIY pancake place. You order batter and toppings/mix-ins and then get to work creating edible masterpieces on the griddle in the middle of the table. It was so good! 

We walked along the water front, saw some ducks and geese and boats, and enjoyed the sunny and warm day. Then we went to a Barcade. For those of you confused by this term it is Bar + Arcade. And we were lucky enough to hit it on a free play day. $5 got us unlimited playtime. I suck at arcade games, but when they're free I don't care! There was pinball, Xmen, 4 player Pacman, and DonkeyKong, among many others. I was terrible at all of them. Stephanie and I made sure to take a few minutes to shoot things. And we all took turns racing in Mario Cart. And got tasty alcoholic drinks called a Kirby's that tasted like an Orange creamsicle. 

We managed to rally for some dinner and a round of Exploding Kittens after that. We had planned to head out the next morning, but Stephanie's aunt offered us guest passes to the Nike Employee Store- where everything is approximately 50% off. So we took them! In order to enter you have to present ID and you're checked against a list, then given a pass to use for 1 transaction and allowed to enter. It's impressive. The store is huge and packed with shoppers. Who doesn't love a discount after all? We browsed, picked up a few items including new shoes for each of us and I got a super cool hot pink visor. Don't judge. I'm confident a visor will be very handy. I'm also fairly certain I've reached a new level of old lady. I'm choosing to embrace it. 

After that we strategically packed our purchases in the very full car and hit the road headed east. Midwest, here we come! 

 

We got buttermilk and lemon poppyseed. 

Blue Star Donuts and coffee. Winning combo. 

 

Drinking a Kirby. Someone photoshop Lesley into this one.