Thursday, August 16, 2007
The Big Trip
Hello everybody! We had the most fabulous road trip across the country, and we’re just about settled in to our new apartment. We saw so much cool stuff, it’s hard to consolidate it all into one posting. We decided to just write up the highlights and we’ve uploaded all our pictures to our Shutterfly account (http://princessandthegeek.shutterfly.com/).
Here's our route, courtesy of Google Maps:
As you can see, not the most straightforward route in the world. Anyway, I thought it might be interesting just to see some facts about our trip:
Driving through so much of the country, you see a lot of funny signs.
This is what you get when you let illiterate Star Wars fans name geography:
And this small Wyoming town offered both a drive-through liquor store (a truly remarkable innovation) as well as this well-phrased marquee:
At one point in Utah, we were driving in perfectly clear weather, when we saw a storm up ahead. It literally looked like a wall of clouds, to the right of which was sunshine and to the left was a thunderstorm. Guess which side we had to drive through.
Here's a picture of Anna standing in front of Mitchell, SD's Corn Palace. First constructed in 1892 to highlight the local corn harvest, each year the artists create murals our of halved corn cobs, nailed to the walls.
And last and most amazingly, the Crazy Horse memorial near Mt. Rushmore is one of the most impressive projects we've ever heard of. The sculpture will be of Crazy Horse on the back of his horse, pointing towards his stolen lands.
Funded entirely by private money, the memorial is one part of a plan which includes a Native American medical school, artist exhibition, and museum. Begun in 1949, the mountain sculpture is on such a scale that Mt. Rushmore could fit in Crazy Horse's head. After almost 60 years, they've only recently completed his face, and leveled parts of the mountain for his arm.
One man was hired to create the memorial. He worked alone for the first few years, then met his wife who assisted, followed by seven of his ten children. Anna even saw one of the sons, featured in their orientation video, leading a tour around the museum. This picture is of the 15' high model, framed in front of the mountain itself:
It was wonderful to see our friends and family on this trip. Seeing them is what made the whole trip worth the effort.
Here's our route, courtesy of Google Maps:
As you can see, not the most straightforward route in the world. Anyway, I thought it might be interesting just to see some facts about our trip:
- Total mileage: 4,920 miles
- Cheapest gas: $2.62 in Cincinnati. We saw $2.55 somewhere, but we'd already filled up =(
- States driven through: 16 (You can see the "Welcome to..." signs for 13 states below. Proof!)
- Lightning storms: 4
- Cheapest coffee: $0.01 in Edgemont, SD
- State capitols driven through: 8 (CA, UT, CO, MN, WI, IN, OH, and PA)
Driving through so much of the country, you see a lot of funny signs.
This is what you get when you let illiterate Star Wars fans name geography:
And this small Wyoming town offered both a drive-through liquor store (a truly remarkable innovation) as well as this well-phrased marquee:
At one point in Utah, we were driving in perfectly clear weather, when we saw a storm up ahead. It literally looked like a wall of clouds, to the right of which was sunshine and to the left was a thunderstorm. Guess which side we had to drive through.
Here's a picture of Anna standing in front of Mitchell, SD's Corn Palace. First constructed in 1892 to highlight the local corn harvest, each year the artists create murals our of halved corn cobs, nailed to the walls.
And last and most amazingly, the Crazy Horse memorial near Mt. Rushmore is one of the most impressive projects we've ever heard of. The sculpture will be of Crazy Horse on the back of his horse, pointing towards his stolen lands.
Funded entirely by private money, the memorial is one part of a plan which includes a Native American medical school, artist exhibition, and museum. Begun in 1949, the mountain sculpture is on such a scale that Mt. Rushmore could fit in Crazy Horse's head. After almost 60 years, they've only recently completed his face, and leveled parts of the mountain for his arm.
One man was hired to create the memorial. He worked alone for the first few years, then met his wife who assisted, followed by seven of his ten children. Anna even saw one of the sons, featured in their orientation video, leading a tour around the museum. This picture is of the 15' high model, framed in front of the mountain itself:
It was wonderful to see our friends and family on this trip. Seeing them is what made the whole trip worth the effort.
