Wayne, Nebraska

Craig:

I always look forward to going home. Seeing family and reliving old memories is always worth the trip. Home for me consists of a fairly small town in Northeast Nebraska called Wayne. Wayne is home to about 5,000 permanent residents with the population increasing a little during the school year when the students of Wayne State College come back. Wayne has many features that resemble most rural Nebraska towns including, but not limited to: a grain elevator, a local coffee shop where farmers gather to complain about grain prices and the weather (Vel’s Bakery), a volunteer fire department, three traffic lights, a Dairy Queen, a John Deere dealership, Pamida, a small grocery store (Pac’N’Save), and a couple of small shops and eateries. Wayne is also home to the world famous “Wayne Chicken Show,” the one weekend where a chicken is the most important animal in the world. For an entire weekend in July, the locals of Wayne gather to celebrate chickens and everything chicken. We eat fried chicken, make omelettes, dress up like chickens, cluck like chickens, try to catch chicken eggs, chase and catch chickens, and see if chickens can fly. The festival was once featured in National Geographic magazine, and at one point, the winner of the annual “Cluck off” would appear on the Tonight Show. And if all this was not enough, two of the best people in the world live in Wayne… my parents.

Bridget and I needed a decent rest period after covering much of the West in about three and a half weeks so three days in Wayne was just the ticket. The first day we spent most of the time organizing the 29 boxes of our stuff we had moved to my parents’ house. Dave and Sue were kind enough to let us store many boxes, a king size bed, two bikes, two surfboards, and scuba gear in the spare bedroom downstairs. Bridget and I cooked up some excellent Nebraska rib-eye steaks that night on the grill and then we headed out to the John Deere store where my dad works to drive a tractor. I grew up as kind of a farm kid but Bridget had never driven a tractor. My dad just happened to have one of the newest models of John Deere tractors on the market. Most people don’t know it even exists yet. My dad taught Bridget how to drive it and then let her take it for a spin. She was all smiles as she drove the $220,000 tractor down the road.

The next day we took a trip down to Scribner, NE to visit my grandparents, Clinton and Mildred Von Seggern. After some catching up at the house we headed down to the Scriber Steakhouse for dinner. You have got to love small-town Nebraska when you ask for the “house red” and the waitress has no idea what you are talking about. Scribner has one feature that Wayne does not… you can parallel park in the middle of Main Street.

We left the steakhouse with just enough daylight left to go pick sweet corn, raspberries, and green peppers from the garden.

The next day we headed up to Lewis and Clark Lake on the border of South Dakota and Nebraska. My dad pulled the boat up to do some tubing and water skiing. We could not have asked for a better day. The lake was empty except for a couple of walleye fishermen and jet skiers. After I had my fill of getting dragged and beat up behind the boat on the tube, Bridget gave water skiing a try. It took her a while but finally managed to get up and have a few short rides out of the water. We finished the lake trip up with ice cream at the Weigand Marina and headed back to Wayne.



That night we grilled up some chicken and the sweet corn picked from my grandparents’ garden. The sweet corn was fantastic! A warm thank you goes out to the garden of Clinton and Mildred. We finished out the night with some beers and a few games of corn hole in the backyard. Just for the record, the young kids won.

We left Wayne early on Saturday morning for Chicago. The trip home was excellent and I cannot wait to get back there in a couple of weeks. Wayne will be our last stop before the South Pacific. Next trip back will be even better as Bridget will get to spend her first day on the farm and we will get to see what my Aunt Becky has in store for us.

Thanks to the whole state of Nebraska. We will be back soon.

Next stop: Chicago, IL

Wall Drug: It's 8 p.m. Do you know where your brontosaurus is?

So to get to Nebraska, we took I-90 E which runs along the southern part of South Dakota. One of the best parts of this drive (besides the jurassic-sized grasshoppers that spatter themselves on your windshield) is the opportunity to see classic roadside Americana at its best. We would like to share with you this experience entirely in pictures...and you can decide the rest.

One of the hundred signs advertising the approach of WALL DRUG.

The WALL DRUG Brontosaurus

Don't worry Mom, we didn't get any ideas.

Another piece of pricelesss Americana for you: The Corn Palace

God bless America....woo hoo!

Next Stop: Wayne, NE

Mt. Rushmore: Black Hills, SD

Bridget:

So, Craig and I have to ask: Can you name the four Presidents on Mt. Rushmore? The first time I ever saw a picture of Mt. Rushmore was probably in an elementary social studies textbook. The idea of carving four Presidents’ faces into a mountain seemed pretty cool, but no textbook or picture on the Internet can do this place justice. First of all, it is not right off the Interstate, so you must drive through the Black Hills National Forest to get there. As we curved back and forth through the mountains, all of a sudden the mountain comes into sight….with four historically familiar faces peering out at you. It is quite an amazing thing to see, especially when you are not expecting it at the moment.

I am a pretty big fan of monuments, especially after spending a summer in D.C., so naturally I was happy to see that the National Park Service has constructed quite the monumental entrance for this place. Complete with all the state flags, an amphitheatre for nightly lighting ceremonies, a visitor’s center, and a “Presidential Trail” that leads to the bottom of the mountain, Mt. Rushmore has become quite the attraction. Craig was pretty shocked by the development, considering none of it was there when he visited as a kid.

Here are some quick stats about the size:

Washington’s eyes = 11 ft. wide
Washington’s nose = 26 ft. long
Lincoln’s mole = 16 inches across
All faces = six stories tall

Equally….um…..impressive…weird…unnecessary…(you can decide for yourself) were the variety and quantity of items available in the gift shop:

A T-Rex to place next to your Mt. Rushmore snow globe...

for the best drop of coffee you ever had...

and International Flags...made in the USA, of course.

All that and no non-glittery stickers. Go figure.

Leaving Mt. Rushmore, we ventured about 17 miles down the road to take a quick look at the Crazy Horse Monument. This is a project started in 1948 that honors the Oglala Lakota warrior chief “Crazy Horse.” It is not scheduled for completion until the year 2050, but when finished, it will be the world’s largest statue. Apparently the horse’s nostril alone will be large enough to fit a five-room house inside of it.

That night, we camped in Deadwood, South Dakota, and ventured into the little historic city to “wet our whistles.” Walking down the street, I was amazed at all the hotel casinos. It was like Vegas collided with the Wild West, and Deadwood was the result. Signs advertising penny and nickel slots, single-deck black jack, and three-card poker littered the windows, and women wearing old-school saloon dresses took orders from thirsty gamblers. After a drink at Saloon No. 10, I thought I would try my luck at a nickel slot….until I realized the machines only accepted bills. Call me cheap, safe, whatever, but I’d rather spend my dollar on a good cup of coffee. If you’re ever near Deadwood, you must stop by…if nothing else, for a good laugh.

Next Stop: Wall Drug: Wall, SD

Yellowstone National Park, WY

Bridget:

You might think that after visiting so many national parks, they would all start to run together. Simply put, Yellowstone breaks all preconceived notions of what a national park should be. If I had to describe it in one word? Variety. Variety in landscape, variety in wildlife, variety in geology. This park has the world’s largest concentration of geysers and, of course, the most popular one, Old Faithful. This geyser spews out water at a temp of 204 degrees F every 60-90 minutes. I have heard so much about Old Faithful that I just had to see it for myself. We entered the park very early on a Sunday morning and of course made our first stop at Old Faithful. It is pretty amazing that you don’t even have to hike to see it. It is such a popular attraction that the size of the parking lot is similar to that of a shopping mall, and the geyser area is surrounded by benches three rows deep. When we arrived, we checked the visitor center for the next eruption time which was 9:07 a.m. It’s amazing to me that they can pinpoint the eruption times so accurately when the eruptions still vary in intervals and length. Here is a video clip of what we saw:

This went on for about two minutes. The steam was so dense it was difficult to see the water, but at times you could see it spurting out the sides of the funnel of steam.

Besides the large concentration of geysers, fumaroles, mudpots, and hot springs, the park also has one of the largest and most diverse wildlife populations. At any point while driving through the 2.2 million-acre park, you might get a glimpse (or an up-close encounter) with any of the following: Elk, moose, bison (buffalo), black bears, grizzly bears, wolves, bighorn sheep, pronghorns, coyotes, marmots, squirrels, and a variety of birds. We first saw a few elk hanging out by the road early in the morning.

Then not too long after that we saw the first buffalo strolling along the side of the road by him/herself. Wow…they are huge. At first, I was so taken away by their size and seemingly tame nature (which in fact they are very dangerous and unpredictable), but then we drove by Hayden Valley, a hotspot for buffalo herds. Not only did we get some good views of these incredible animals, but a few of them decided to give us an extremely up-close and personal encounter, all the while holding up traffic for very long periods of time.

I wondered if they thought all these cars were animals too and just wanted to chill out in the middle of all the action. They move so slowly when grazing the fields (or causing traffic jams), but surprisingly they can actually run at 35 MPH.

After getting past “Buffalo Rush Hour” we headed up to Canyon Village area, where the Upper Falls and Lower Falls are located along the Yellowstone River and Canyon. We first hiked along the South Rim trail to Artist Point where you can look back up the colorful Yellowstone Canyon and see Lower Falls roaring over the cliff:

Then we hiked back along the rim and down the Uncle Tom’s Trail which is a series of very steep stairs that lead down to an almost-bottom viewing point:

After huffing and puffing our way back up the never-ending stairs, we walked back up to the Upper Falls to get picture of that too:

Back in the car and a bit further north, we detoured to see Tower Falls. Craig said he remembered hiking this trail with his family down to the very bottom of the falls. Unfortunately, the trail is now closed off at the bottom, so your view of the falls is limited to an upper viewing area:

Nevertheless, it is still gorgeous. Onward to the north of the park. The last and final point of interest we had to see was Mammoth Hot Springs. After reading some of the information boards, we learned that these types of hot springs can go through periods of dormancy, which most of the Mammoth Hot Springs seems to be in. There was one side, however, that still looked alive and vibrant with colors:

The rest of the area has turned a ghostly white from the dried limestone, and the calcium has clogged the root systems of the trees, transforming them into gnarled formations that make the terrain appear like something out of a horror flick:

On our way out of the Mammoth Hot Spring area, we said our goodbyes to the several dozen elk chilling on the greens:

Two hours later, we made it back through “Buffalo Rush Hour” successfully and headed out the east entrance which takes you right by the beautiful Yellowstone Lake. A storm was just starting to roll in, which made for another fantastic photo opportunity:

After an incredibly fun day spent here, I believe I must go say thanks to Teddy Roosevelt for establishing the world’s first-ever national park (1872), so onward we go...

Next Stop: Mt. Rushmore

Glacier National Park, MT

Bridget:

If I had been counting, I would say that ever since Craig and I started planning this trip, Glacier National Park has been the most-recommended. What was all the fuss about? Well now I know. The most beautiful of all national parks I’ve seen yet, Glacier National Park sits just south of the Canadian border in northwestern Montana. It is actually a part of the first-ever International Peace Park, a combination of two national parks (Glacier for the U.S. and Waterton for Canada). The landscape was carved out by massive glacier movement millennia ago. Some of these glaciers still exist today. It also has the largest concentration of grizzly bears in the U.S. Yikes!

We thought it would be a good idea to camp two nights instead of the usual one so we would have more time to spend in the gigantic park. We arrived to the park early Thursday evening and obtained our trail information to plan for the next day. We decided on the “Highline Trail,” a 7.6 mile hike up to the Granite Park Chalet that begins at Logan Pass and runs alongside the Garden Wall (also part of the Continental Divide). We woke up super early in order to catch the shuttle by 7:00 a.m. This shuttle is a free service now provided by the park (and probably financed by the $25 park entrance fee we paid). The bus took us up and around the “Going-to-the-Sun Road” to Logan Pass, where we arrived 1 and ½ hours later. Apparently the Highline Trail had been closed due to bear activity but was re-opened just before we headed out. Yeah. I don’t know about you, but for me, the possibility of encountering a grizzly is not the most comforting prospect. After catching the last part of a ranger’s talk, we learned that the bears were primarily by the Granite Park Chalet and pass that on the way down the “Loop.” Since there were plenty of hikers already starting down the trail, we went ahead and began the hike. This trail was none like I’ve ever seen: all open and spectacular views with every step.

We hiked in about five miles (without any bear sightings) and then headed back to get in at least one more hike around Logan Pass. We headed up to Hidden Lake Overlook, a short 1.5 mile hike with once again fantastic views of landscape and wildlife.

Around 4:00 p.m. we caught the shuttle back down to Apgar, which is right by the west entrance of the park. By the way, I do not recommend hiking 13 miles then sitting still in a car/bus/whatever for two hours….unless, that is, you like super-stiff muscles.

With turkey sandwiches in hand, we headed down to Lake McDonald to “soak our feet” in the beautiful, multi-colored stone bottom lake.

In the mid 1800’s, there were about 150 glaciers that spotted the mountains, now there are around 30. Experts predict that by the year 2030, all the glaciers will be gone. I beg you…in the next twenty years, plan a trip to this park. You will be glad you did. Oh, and if you want to invite us to tag along, that would be cool too.

Next Stop: Yellowstone National Park, WY