Oklahoma!

Today: Oklahoma, the last state on my trip.  It was only a couple of hundred miles from Wichita to Oklahoma City, and it was a pretty easy drive. Until getting close to the city, that is, when there were all these highways criss-crossing all over the place. Not much fun after weeks in the hinterlands, but between the GPS and me we got here.

My only planned site visit was to the National Cowboy Museum, which Cris suggested, and what an amazing collection – and group of buildings – it has. I spent about 2 hours there and didn’t do much more than scratch the surface. Have you ever seen a buffalo overcoat? How about angora chaps? Or a room filled with drawers of barbed wire? Hackamores? Saddles? Muzzle-loading and breech-loading rifles?


There are paintings, sculptures, and literally tons of exhibits, each with a singular focus: Crow basketry or saddles from the 1860s or rodeo trophies or Indian saddles from 1800. Photos of two sculptures are shown, the first one of Buffalo Bill sculpted in bronze, which is literally just out in the yard. The other one is plaster, entitled The End of the Trail, sculpted in 1915 by James Earle Fraser and the first thing you see when you walk in the door.

It is a fabulous museum, and if you come to Oklahoma City and do not go see it, you will make a huge mistake.

And so the end of the trail for me as well. I've been in 6 states I had never seen before. I've driven close to 3000 miles (admittedly, some of it lost), racking up the most miles in Montana and South Dakota, the least in Idaho (it's only 75 miles across up north).

I could muse a bit here: civility and the speed limit decrease together from north to south out here; lots of highway construction; you couldn’t play the license plate game today; casinos abound; they use air boats on the Platte River; cows still stand under shade trees in the heat.

We live in a beautiful country.

It’s hot in Oklahoma. I’m ready to go home.

I hope you’ve enjoyed a bit of my trip. I did.

Kansas

[I neglected to publish this post from Sunday on Sunday, but I wrote it on Sunday. Publishing Monday afternoon.]

I did a little wandering around Lincoln this morning before leaving for Wichita. Found a Starbucks and spent another $3 from my birthday gift card (2 states/2 Starbucks to go). Found Atwood House, an enormous and handsome B&B that Jenny recommended (I didn't stay there, however).

Found highway 81 and got on my way to Kansas.

Kansas turns out to be really flat, not unlike Nebraska. Where Nebraska had fields of green, Kansas has fields that are wheat colored, and for good reason: they're wheat. Where a John Deere store in North Carolina would focus on riding lawnmowers, a John Deere store in Kansas has farm equipment with tires that can be 10 feet in diameter. When you see a piece of equipment that size coming down the road in your direction, you give it all the room it needs and then some.

I arrived in Wichita too late to visit the zoo, which is high on the list of local attractions. 

After three weeks away from home, I'm ready for familiar faces and places and voices. Tomorrow I will travel to Oklahoma City, completing my planned trip from Washington to Oklahoma through Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. It's been fun.

Nebraska

Have you been to the world's only corn palace, which is in Mitchell, SD? When Sioux Falls failed to build its own corn palace in the late 1800s, Mitchell town leaders decided to do it. And do it they did. The outside of the building is covered in ears of corn and sheaves of rye in a pattern that changes annually. The old design is removed in June and the new design is finished by August. They devote 100 acres to growing the corn in 13 shades of color, and over 250,000 ears are applied. The photo shows the design that will come down in a few weeks; it covers several panels on the front and on the sides. It's pretty significant. Good historical video and guided tour available. Free, interestingly.

After the corn palace came the drive into Nebraska, which I had been warned is pretty boring. It's clearly an agricultural state, with miles and miles of rolling hills now covered in newly-planted greenery. Mostly corn, I'm told.

I noticed a dreaded MAINT REQD light on my dash. With several hundred miles to go, I opted to pull off and call the rental company. After asking a couple of relevant questions and letting me wait a few minutes, the service lady came back to say the oil didn't need to be changed for another 2000 miles so I should drive on and ignore the light. Really? The car is behaving just fine, but it's disconcerting anyway.

So, my drive to Clarkson continued. I was sent there to have a kolache from the bakery. I dutifully drove miles out of the way to find the Clarkson Bakery -- closed. See the photo.

I will find a kolache tomorrow one way or another.

Arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska, late in the afternoon.

South Dakota West to East

I started out today at Custer State Park in western South Dakota (Rob's suggestion) taking a guided jeep safari through the park with a couple from Indiana who were on their third day there and not tired of it yet. We saw much the same as I came across yesterday in North Dakota at Teddy Roosevelt Park: bison, prairie dogs, antelope, but none of the longhorn sheep or elk we hoped for (they were sleeping) and no mountain lions, which was fine. For two hours we drove up and down the hills coming across whatever was there. and learning a fair amount of history in the process.

I asked about the pine beetle problem in South Dakota as we drove past what's in the photo (the brown smudge right of center is affected dead trees). The problem is bad here, and our guide had spent last fall and winter identifying trees that had the beetle in their bark but not yet appearing to be affected (that is, not red or dead). The Park Service takes down such trees before the beetle can move on, and when it's safe they burn them. (The potters I met in Montana said they use these downed pines in their kilns. Recycling.)

Much of my venture in South Dakota was guided by Becki's suggestions, although I did not visit the caves she suggested once I found out that they are, um, real caves. Underground and enclosed and claustrophobia-inducing caves.  That took care of Jewel and Wind Caves.

But I did go see Mount Rushmore. Here I followed Ray's idea of driving on Thunder Road and coming upon what you see in the next photo. After several significant S curves on this ever-so-winding road, I came upon this one-lane tunnel beyond which stood Mount Rushmore -- surprising, bright white, and literally breathtaking -- about 20 miles away. After that, I decided being onsite with crowds of tourists like me wasn't going to be able to improve on what I had just seen, so I headed north and then east to the Badlands. Let's not discuss my missing a critical turn.

 

The Badlands is as other-worldly and stunning as advertised. There's a 35-mile loop through the park, so I drove that. At times the scenery looks like a moonscape, but the color and the effects of the wind on the canyons are amazing. One photo from there. Always that huge sky. This was the first time I ran into significant competition for the road. Who let those tourists out?





Then it was time to head across the state 220 miles to Mitchell. I happened upon this burro by the side of the road, very interested in me, evidently used to being fed. Closed the window and drove on. Next I stopped by Wall Drug (in Wall, no less) so I could say I did. Check.

Arrived in Mitchell in time to worry about a tornado on the ground a bit north of here, but it moved east without coming close.

Tomorrow: kolaches, Anthony!

North and South Dakota

This morning I drove a pleasant, sunny 100+ miles to Medora, first stopping at the North Dakota Visitors' Center for a chat. I asked how tourism was going and got two frowny looks and the expected answer that there just isn't anywhere to stay because of the energy rush up north, so tourists aren't coming. Then I asked how far I would have to go to see this booming area and was advised not to try. Although Williston was about 75 miles north, and doable, they said there was about a traffic fatality a day up there (perhaps an exaggeration) because of the congestion and the inexperienced drivers behind the wheels of many of the trucks being driven around the fields. So I didn't go.

Medora is the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, with a very well set-up exhibit and tour and a fun scenic drive. Teddy Roosevelt had a pretty horrible day in the 1880s, becoming an orphan and a widower within a day of the birth of his first child. He left the baby with his sister and headed west to recover, ending up in the Medora area. It was the time he spent in North Dakota that began to turn him into an environmentalist. His original cabin is now in Medora.

The drive is 36 miles, with many turnouts to look at scenery and trails to walk to different views. Unlike Glacier, there are no bear, so walking alone is safe and I took advantage of it.

First, though, within 100 yards of starting the drive I was surprised to see an enormous buffalo walking down the yellow line in the road, looking pretty much like he was taking a sobriety test. I stopped my car and waited, and he walked past not 3 feet from my door. You might notice that I took the picture of him with the window closed.

There are lots of free-ranging bison either munching or resting and several prairie dog towns, some more like cities with hundreds of borrows and squeaking little critters. Bella would like them: they look to be larger than hamsters, blond, and smaller and leaner than guinea pigs. When they squeal they jump, and when they see a car they squeal.

I left Medora after several hours and drove south into South Dakota, expecting to drive two hours or so. Significant underestimation. But 2 things about the trip.

First, my route took me past Sturgis, SD. Back when Matt was a college textbook editor, he did a lot of traveling to college campuses throughout the country. He once found himself between campus visits in a hotel in Sturgis, SD, at the same time as the annual motorcycle rally. Every owner of every Harley had to roar the engine well into the night. The only hotel stay Matt ever described as equal in awfulness to that one was the one that coincided with a national contest among barbershop quartets (who practiced long into the night and had rooms next to his).

The second thing is the pine beetle infestation in this part of the country. We lost a huge double pine to the beetle long ago, and it went from seeming healthy to looking like its needles were turning red to being dead in less than a week. Out here, you can look up a mountain and almost see the beetles doing their work. At the top is a pine tree graveyard, tall black outlines of trees with no needles, looking like the remnants of a burn. Lower on the mountain are trees with reddish brown needles, clearly dying. Still lower on the mountain are healthy trees, but you know it won't be long. It looks devastating.  I saw a lot of it between Missoula and Helena, MT, and more here in western SD.

Heading East

The point of today was to get close to North Dakota; the closest I could get (and not sleep in the car) was Miles City, about 100 miles west of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, tomorrow's first destination.

At Adam's suggestion, I took a relatively rural two-lane highway, US 12, to go see the Bair Family Museum -- past White Sulphur Springs and just beyond Checkerboard (really). The Bair family made its money during the gold rush when the patriarch sold a lot of ground-thawing devices to prospectors heading to Alaska. Then he took the profits to buy 56,000 acres and raise sheep (300,000 at one point) and to invest in oil and mining.

Charles Bair was friends with, among others, Charles M. Russell and Joseph Sharp (Western artists), Edward Curtis (Western photographer), and many of their paintings and photographs as well as letters and cards are displayed in the museum. Chief Plenty Coups (Crow Indian leader) was a good friend.

The family home is also open for tours and filled with interesting European and American furnishings from the early 20th century as well as a number of signed photographs, including every President from Hoover to Kennedy.

It's definitely worth seeing the Bair Family Museum, but the wise driver will then hightail it to the nearest big highway, not decide to go overland on route 12 to Miles City. Just one year ago this week (who knew?), much of route 12 was closed because of extreme flooding. This year, cleanup. There were four separate instances today when I had to wait for a pilot car to lead me and others through the road construction. The last 20 miles I drove were on gravel. I have to give Montana credit for doing a huge job of repairing and widening about 50 miles all at once, but it doesn't make for a relaxing drive.

I took this photo about 60 miles outside Helena to demonstrate what Big Sky means. You can see forever.

The energy boom in North Dakota has affected eastern Montana in a couple of ways. Montana is doing its own exploration for oil and natural gas, and from the number of trainloads of coal I saw today it's also a center for coal mining. But North Dakota is on a different level. I've been warned not to expect to stay overnight there because all the available rooms are occupied by oil and gas workers. One person staying here in Miles City is commuting 360 miles a day to and from his job in North Dakota.

So tomorrow will be goodby to Montana, hello and goodby to North Dakota, and hello to Custer National Forest in South Dakota. Checking off two of those five states not visited before. Looking forward to it.

Helena

This is a nice small city, the capital of Montana, just east of the continental divide (so all those rivers are emptying to the east rather than the west from here on out). Helena appears to be pretty progressive, to the point of having a headline this morning about doubling the fine (to $50) for talking or texting on a cellphone while driving, something that liberal Chapel Hill has been thwarted by.

This morning I visited the Archie Bray Foundation, which is a haven for ceramic artists not unlike Penland in North Carolina. There are artists-in-residence and classes for those interested, and the extensive yard is littered with leftover shards and pieces discarded by some of those artists.  I photographed a brick form about 10 feet tall crated by one of the artists; notice the incredible Montana background.

This photo shows one of the three enormous, no-longer-used beehive kilns with the remnants of an overhang which may have had a corrugated roof. The entire kiln was about 15 feet tall and 25 feet across. All the items to be fired were loaded into the space, which held about 600 pots from wall to wall and bottom to top. I learned from an enthusiastic potter named Lindsay that the way to determine if the kiln had completed its work was to climb up to the top of it and see whether the space between the pots and the ceiling had increased "enough." I noticed no memorial markers, but I wondered.

This afternoon I had a very nice visit with Adam, friend of Laura, over a cup of coffee in downtown Helena. As have others, Adam advised I go no further east without reservations (because of the booming energy business in eastern Montana and especially North Dakota), so I took care of that. Interesting that I cannot get within 100 miles of North Dakota for tomorrow night, but it'll work. Adam also suggested buying gas every time I see a station. I think it's going to be flatter by far, with longer distances between towns.

I wandered through the Holter Art Museum, which has a nice collection of contemporary artists of the West. Some sculpture, some paintings, some unusual pieces.

With dinner tonight, Moose Drool. Pretty good ale.

Missoula to Helena

Happy Memorial Day from Missoula.

Today there is sunshine and the temperature is a reasonably comfortable 60 degrees. Missoula is an unusual small city, sitting at the spot where 5 mountain ranges (the Garnet, Bitterroot, Sapphire, Rattlesnake, and Reservation Divide) come together, so any direction you look there are mountains. There are also two rivers coursing their way through and around Missoula, the Clark Fork (pictured) and the Bitterroot.

After being unable to get out and move around much for several days of driving in the rain, I decided to go see downtown Missoula and the University of Montana. The University was "seen" in very short order. Physically it is very small.

I arrived in downtown Missoula just as the Memorial Day ceremonies were getting underway. (When you don't know an address to give a GPS, try City Hall or County Courthouse; County Courthouse worked in Missoula, and that's where I ran into the ceremony.)

This was an old-fashioned celebration with active duty service men and women in full-dress uniforms or camouflage, some elderly VFW members with rifles, three bagpipers, a color guard, and a group of one hundred or so looking on. After a few speeches, flowers were taken to the memorial statue accompanied by the bagpipers, then a rifle salute, and the playing of Taps. Guaranteed to make me teary. Then someone read the Gettysburg Address. Cool.

I spent an hour or so walking around downtown, got a nice cafe au lait, got lost and let my iPhone rescue me, and headed back to my room at the Hampton Inn. I decided to move on to Helena today instead of tomorrow, and they were very accommodating. Everyone in Montana is very accommodating.

Tomorrow I will have coffee with Laura's friend Adam and get his advice as to the direction to take across eastern Montana to North Dakota and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. He has already suggested I divert to see the Bair Family Museum. Should be fun.

Kalispell to Missoula

More driving in the rain today, although it was neither a bad nor a terribly long drive. I didn't follow the more sensible Route 93 straight between Kalispell and Missoula but instead went by way of Bigfork, following Route 82 a bit east and then 83 straight south and 200 a bit west into the city. I discovered the county courthouse in Kalispell, which is really pretty (see the photo), on my way out of town.

The GPS couldn't find Bigfork when I typed in Bigfoot (Freudian) this morning, but when I corrected myself it still couldn't. Some parts of some states are just not on the map evidently.

Bigfork was the site of a big whitewater festival last week on the Swan River, which is just beautiful and which paralleled much of my route today. As I left Bigfork, which looked like it might be a fun place to troll through on a day other than Sunday, I passed a spot where 15 or 20 kayaks were resting upside down beside the river. About 10 miles further I began seeing serious cyclists wearing numbers (and riding in steady, but not hard, rain). I wonder if they were in an adventure event that included biking and kayaking. (Ned knows something about adventure races; Laura will soon.)

I drove through the very small towns of Swan Lake and Seeley Lake, whose decorations for Memorial Day, which you can see in the photo, went on for at least a mile in a small town with a population of just 2,000. Between the heartfelt patriotism seen on every one of their light posts and the NPR weekend series on the 182nd Airborne that I've been listening to on the radio, I'm feeling the holiday.

Several miles south of Seeley Lake was Liquid Louie's where I am told you can ride your horse right into the saloon. I didn't have a horse so I didn't find out, but from the size of the front door it would have to be a pretty small horse.

I am ready to meet Missoula tomorrow and oh-so-ready for no rain, although the forecast is for (you guessed it) rain.