Badlands/Black HIlls, Day 2, Part 2

Back to the park and through it to Interior, SD. Back to the lodge where we sat outside about 15 minutes before checking in to our cabin.

The cabins were built in the 1950s. Tiny, but not awful. We've had smaller hotel rooms!  We are in number 33, which is the Honeymoon Cabin!  The 20-year-later Honeymoon.......

The bikers are certainly still around. Lots and lots of them, but I must say they have not created any kind of problems for us. We love to observe them, too.

It was sunny and up to 82° today.

After we got into our cabin, we took care of our photos, napped and sat outside for a while. This was the view from our cabin:

And we had a visit from this little guy:

Had dinner at the lodge Grill, bison burger for Norbert (dry) and beef burger for me (good).

After dinner we hopped in the car again and went in search of sunset photos. Think we got some good ones!

No tv in the room, so we listened to some music. Early to bed (Honeymoon!).

Badlands and Black Hills, Day 2, part 1

Thursday, August 11

What a day!  What a park!  What landscape!  It is so hard to take it all in.

Left the hotel about 8:15 and headed south through the rolling plains to Badlands National Park.  Immediately turned right onto the gravel road and then stopped again almost immediately for photos.  Needless to say we did that a lot today! Stopped at every opportunity to take pictures and simply to look.

Also stopped at the Prairie Dog Village, where we saw a number of the cute little critters.  Adorable!  One of them fell in love with Norbert and came right up to him.

 We also saw a huge herd of buffalo (bison). They are BIG! Watched and photographed them for quite a while. Also saw a number of buffalo droppings – they are so large, they are hard to miss.....

We turned around and rode back to the Badlands Loop Road (me driving now) and made our way through the park. It is impossible to describe the landscape except to say that it is sort of like Bryce Canyon or the Grand Canyon, but not really. And it is not a canyon!

What makes the park so spectacular is the variety of landscapes and formations. Some cliffs and valleys, some mountains (the Wall), and in between – grassy plain! So unusual. And you drive right through it, which you certainly can't with the Grand Canyon.

To a certain extent, some parts of the park remind me of Egypt –the barrenness, the wasteland, very similar.  Some of the formations look like ruins of temples.  And in others I found myself searching for where the pharaohs' tombs would be hidden. This one, for example:

Just before noon we arrived at the Cedar Pass Lodge, where we lunched.  We both had hot dogs with chili, and the chili was outstanding. A very nice gift shop, but didn't buy anything.

We then went to the park visitor's center and watched a beautiful film about the park.  Lots of people at the center but only one other couple watching the film. Go figure.... We always watch such films.  For one thing it is a chance to sit in a cooled place, but they are also almost always educational and interesting.

Then headed north for a few more photo stops and then out of the park to Cactus Flat, which is basically a gas station at the interstate exit. Bought a cup of coffe, some ice for the cooler, cookies and a photo book of the park. 

Right next door was the Minuteman National Monument, which we went in, but there is actually nothing to see there.

Badlands and Black Hills -- Day One

In 2011, Norbet and I left Lucas with my brother Bill and took off for an adventure of our own -- Badlands National Park and the Black Hills of South Dakota.


Wednesday, August 10

The adventure begins!

Up about 6.30/7 a.m.  Adequate breakfast in the hotel.  The GPS had told us 10 minutes to the airport, which amused me.  Traffic was actually not too bad, and we were in the terminal 29 minutes after leaving the hotel, which I thought was quite good!

Checked the bag, drank a Dunkin' Donuts coffee and then went through security to our gate. Sat down at about 9.50, with boarding at 11:10.

The flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul was 100 percent full, but there were no problems at all. It is hard to get used to everyone carrying their own food on board, but I did it too, and the chicken caesar salad I had was better than almost anything I have ever before had on a plane.

We even got in a few minutes early.   We had a very short turnaround there so we hurried along the very long walkways to find out we still had to take a train.  Jumped on the train 2 seconds before the doors closed and took about a 10 second trip......... then stepped off and saw our gate!

So we ended up sitting about 20 minutes and waiting. Most of the other passengers are headed to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally – it was very obvious.....

It was a smallish plane to Rapid City, but the flight went quickly.  Nice little airport but with massive amounts of construction.

Got the bag, got the rental car – on Kitty Hawk Road!

We have a Ford Edge, a medium sized SUV, which seems huge! Very nice, though.

We drove back east towards Wall. The landscape is fascinating. The Black Hills are lurking to the west. The rest is rolling plains, for lack of a better description. Barely any trees.  Lovely!  And truly Big Sky country!

Staying at the EconoLodge in Wall, SD.  Nice and a fairly big room. Saw this cute little bat hanging on the wall -- he was about the size of my hand.

A few bikers are in town.....

 

We walked over to Wall Drug – tourist trap and absolute kitsch!  I bought one little thing for my brother, tee hee. It is the kind of thing you really do have to see – but once is enough.

Walked back to the hotel and went to the mini-market next door and bought a cooler and some water.  Then a rest.

Dinner at Fat Boys BBQ.  Norbert had a BBQ Burger (ok) and I had an excellent Club Sandwich of course I could only eat the half.

Looking Back: Outer Banks, April 2013

The original vacation plan was a week in Georgia/Florida, and a week with Mom. Except that suddenly Mom wasn't there any more .......

We decided to spend the first few days at the Outer Banks, a place we not only love but where we have wonderful memories of Mom, and Dad too. 

We stayed at the Days Inn and Suites Kill Devil Hills - Mariner (to give it its full name). We had a mini-suite -- a living room-kitchen-dining room table, a full bath, and a separate bathroom. It was on the top floor and had a view of the ocean!

Life is good when this is your view.

One of the things we did this visit was to stop at the little park on the causeway between Manteo and the beach.

We were not alone:

Our feathered "friends" were happy to see us go.

We did another new thing and visited the Island Farm. "A living history site, Island Farm interprets daily life on Roanoke Island in the mid-1800s. The centerpiece of the site is the Etheridge farmstead, where Adam Etheridge built a house on land that had been farmed by his family since 1757. It is the oldest period restoration of a house on Roanoke Island, and includes 19th-century furnishings, some original to the house."

The workers dressed in the clothes of the time and demonstrated work and play of the era.

The sheep guy was notable because he seemed to have absolutely no idea of what he was doing.

A modern-day guy at the old farm.

That is the living room.

And after all, what is so beautiful as spring on the East Coast?

Looking Back: Jekyll Island/Amelia Island

Back to the spring vacation:

We left the Okefenokee Swamp with wonderful memories, and made our way to the east and the ocean. We drove to Waycross again but instead of turning south, we went on to the east.

We had to pay to enter Jekyll Island, which I had not expected. I don't remember how much it was. We found our hotel -- literally the only one on the beachfront. We drove around virtually the entire island -- lots of houses, few hotels, few restaurants.  We ended up eating lunch at Dairy Queen.

The island was formerly a very posh resort, and there is still a strong feeling of that here. We drove around the grounds and I will admit to being very impressed by the gorgeous live oaks and Spanish moss.

We visited the Sea Turtle Center, which rescues and helps sea turtles. A wonderful cause but unfortunately we found the center to be only mildly interesting.

The hotel was fine, and had a nice breakfast the next morning, with a wonderful ocean view.

We just didn't connect to this place. Part of the problem, I admit, was the weather. The wind was so terribly strong that we couldn't be out on the beach for more than a few minutes.

But the whole thing was to me too "resort" and "old money".  Not my thing at all.

The next morning we went south to Fernandina and Amelia Island in Florida.  Once again, we just never formed a connection here. The beach itself was lovely, and it was warm enough the second day that we were able to lay out in out bathing suits.

Amelia Island is dominated by resorts, and just reeks of Money and Exclusivity -- as I said, just not our things.

Our hotel was at the northern end and was really only steps from the beach.

This was the view from our balcony (which was actually too small to do anything more than perhaps stand on):

As I said, the beach was lovely, and not at all crowded:

Nicer weather the next day saw us on the beach and in the water -- along with a few other folks:

We then drove to the Jacksonville Airport and flew first to Atlanta, and then to Norfolk. The further adventures will come later!