Yellowstone and Jackson, Wyoming!

Keith and I woke up early since we wanted to spend as much time as possible in Yellowstone. Bill, one of the innkeepers and formerly a truck driver (who supposedly roasted chicken on his hood!), was now the chef, and he served us fresh scones and fruit as a starter. Keith and I agreed that these scones were one of the best that we’ve ever had! They were so buttery and flavorful—we were quite pleasantly surprised. Following that, we had buffalo patties with sour cream pancakes. Dale, Bill’s wife, told us about how she personally visits various ranches in Montana every year to order the buffalo meat. We found out that buffalo meat is actually healthier than beef, because it is leaner. It’s just as tasty, too!

That morning, we kept calling the Yellowstone hotline to find out if the East gate would open up, since it had been closed for the last 2 days due to forest fires. It opened up the morning we were driving to Yellowstone, but since we were concerned about the residual smoke, we decided to take the longer northern route up to the Montana border, and then enter Yellowstone through the North gate. That way, we could also have a greater chance of spotting wildlife! The drive was long and windy along a two lane highway, and Keith was quietly cursing at all the slow cars in front of us (Keith: that is because we had a lot of driving to do and goals packed into our schedule).

After we entered the North gate, we drove through the Lamar Valley and had a chance to see some beautiful scenery. We saw herds of buffalo grazing the grounds, and we also got really close to a few of them right along the road! Apparently these buffalo can run quite fast and they have been known to charge at people (with their 2,000lbs mass). Other animals we saw included deer, pronghorn, moose, and wolves. No wonder they call Yellowstone the “Serengeti of America.”

Our first stop was the Mammoth Hot Springs on the eastern side of the park. They were amazing! You walk along these wooden planks right over the sulfur-smelling hot springs, which consist of limestone being dissolved by the underground volcanic system of hot water. Thermophiles (heat-loving bacteria), grow in these areas and create tapestries of color in the ground. There was steam everywhere, and stunning rock formations. It is hard to imagine that nature can take such varied forms! (Keith: it was fascinating how energetic and active the subterranean volcano was... at times you can see boiling water bubbling through the cracks a few feet from the boardwalk... the signs for us to "Stay on the Boardwalk" was literally for our own protection.)

Because of time limitations, we made a stop to see the Black Sand Basin, where the bright colors of Sunset Lake and Emerald pool impressed us. There was steam and smaller geysers as well. We wished we could have stayed longer to see all the stops along the road, but we had to get going and check into our inn.

Around 6 p.m., we arrived in Jackson, also known as Jackson Hole, the famous resort-town, snuggled in the valley of the Grand Tetons. Upon driving through downtown, it immediately seemed more upscale, with nice restaurants and hotels all around. We checked into the Bentwood Inn, a beautiful B&B that was built from trees recovered from a forest fire. The Inn had tons of character, are we were warmly welcomed by Keith and Susan, the innkeepers. We arrived right during the evening wine reception that is held every night for guests, and it was a nice relief from all the driving and walking that day! We were even invited to join the hosts for dinner, since they were having a small gathering with local friends. Instead, we decided to meet up with Mindy & Mark (MM!), our friends from the Bay Area, who were also in Jackson for the weekend looking at wedding sites. It was wonderful to catch up with them—we ate at a small local restaurant called Nora’s Fish Creek Inn, where we enjoyed house specialties such as nut-encrusted trout and ribs. Whew! What a long but fun-filled day. We returned to our charming inn for a night of much-needed rest.

Cody, Wyoming and a Real Rodeo!

W e left South Dakota humorously excited to drive through Wyoming and knowing that night we will get to watch a real rodeo in Cody! The drive was not too bad... about 400 miles, and since there was nothing else to see in Rapid City this morning, we hit the road bright and early! As of now, more than halfway across the US, I have accumulated this nice collection of bugs and butterflies across my front bumper (even through the grille into the radiator). Poor little critters hitting the steel at 90+ mph... some splattered pretty hard.

(Noteworthy: our hotel in Rapid City boasted "a hot breakfast with real Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches"... yum, nothing like TWO microwaved, high-calorie and fatty frozen sandwiches to fuel me for the day).

Passing through the Wyoming state line, we stopped at a "tourism center" where I asked for directions as to the best way to cross a section of the Rocky Mountains standing between the Great Plains (where we were) and Cody. The kind old lady behind the counter told us of a very windy, high-grade road that is less traveled, and apparently offers a stupendous view "from which you can see all the way back to South Dakota." Wow. We also asked her what is a good place to stop for lunch

Her response: "Weelllll.... I love Applebees!" Hmm.

After a nice supersized meal at Wendy's, we continued driving across the big flats of Wyoming. Yes, there were hills, and grasslands, but for some reason it was kinda draining in a way that I did not feel in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, or Iowa, or S.Dakota. At some point I just had to pull over to make sure I was still alive... maybe it was the damn 1,000 calories from the lunch kicking up my liver in some struggle to turn into nice fatty tissue. Finally, we reached this highway to cross over the Bighorn Mountains... and saw... and smelled... this incredible fire. The entire sky at 2pm was yellow-brown. Hmm... winding, steep roads up the side of a mountain driving into a massive forest fire... excellent.

Luckily the road eventually skirted around the fire, and with less than 100 miles to Cody, we punched it to try and make up some time. Amazingly, the "outskirts" of Cody had NOTHING. It was like a scene in the middle of some Western cowboy film... rolling grasslands to the horizon with nothing else other than a super-straight, empty road in front of you. Needless to say it was a sight for sore eyes when we reached the town and our bed & breakfast (The Mayor's Inn).

Downtown Cody is super cute, and was a relatively long stretch of shops, restaurants, and ends with "Buffalo Bill's Museum." We stopped for a quick dinner at "The Outlaw Cafe", a casual place above a little souvenir shop. A small Asian woman came to take our orders. Amazingly, she is also the owner of the establishment -- she explained that she was originally from Hong Kong, made it big as an IT consultant in Oregon, and decided to go to the wild west as part of her retirement gig! Who would have known... she was super friendly, talked to us while we had a dinner of elk-meat sandwich and bbq buffalo flank.

The highlight of the town was, of course, the nightly rodeo! The show started with cowgirls riding around with large American flags (followed by all of the sponsoring company flags), singing of the national anthem, and even a public prayer for our troops. Then came various competitions for cowboys, cowgirls, and cowchildren(!) to hang onto their buckling horses, lasso the psycho cows, leap from their horses to wrestle down runaway cows... simply awesome. The individual contests were actually quite ferocious and exciting... at one point a cowboy was buckled from his horse only to have the buckling horse fall over and onto him... yikes. In an impressive display of skill, one reigning cowboy galloped from the starting line, lassoed a running cow, jumped off his horse, wrestled the cow to the ground, and tied up its four legs... in a matter of 8 seconds.

Badlands and Staying in South Dakota

In keeping tradition with prior road trips, I [Keith] woke up at 6am to try and take a picture of the sunrise. Given the low number of visitors to Badlands, it was especially calm and serene (and cool!) in the early morning. While I had a chance to sit alone and watch the sunrise for an hour, the sun never really broke from the haze (I was hoping it would bathe the entire valley in shadows and bright orange light). Later on I found out from the park rangers that the haze is likely due to a big forest fire over at Yellowstone (uh oh).

Karen joined for an early morning, before-breakfast hike. We went to the "Doors Trail" which provides an expansive view of one section of the wall. The trails are extremely flat, easy, and fast; sections of the boardwalk also allows you to walk out and wander among the buttes.

By 8:30am, we had checked out of our little cabin at Cedar Pass Lodge. This little lodge is located next door to the park's main visitor center, and is at the bottom of "the wall". Rabbits and various wildlife wander just in front of our doorsteps; it even had its own private bath and shower! A short film at the Visitor's Center explained how Badlands was formed as sedimentary layers over hundreds of millions of years, resulting in the multicolor striations. The entire area was part of an inland sea, and has been extensively studied since many of the Oligocene Epoch era sea-based dinosaur-like creatures have been fossilized and found through the different rock layers. Many active archaeological digs around the South Dakota area are still in progress today.

The entire area is practically inside a Sioux Indian reservation. The Lodge has a small restaurant where I ordered an "Indian Breakfast Taco": It has a cheddar and sausage omelet topped over fried Indian bread. Unlike the sod oven fried bread we had in Taos (New Mexico), this one was like one gigantic fried dough; the size can only be explained by the picture.

Naturally I ate it all. Nothing like a massive dump of calories for those flat hikes today!

We also attended a 10:30am fossil talk at one of the trails where many fossils were found. A huge mother-of-pearl from an old ammonite was found, and so was the "up-to-3-feet-long" jaw of some nasty sea-beast that crunched on these ammonites. The jaw of one of these prehistoric creatures was pressed into my neck for a sense of... scale.
We also drove to "The Pig Dig", an area adjacent to one of the picnic sites where 14 years ago some visitors discovered a huge dinosaur spine in the ground. Since then, scientists have found many many (hundreds?!) of fossils buried in the surrounding 500 square feet! Here they are in the process of pulling a newly-found skull out of the ground (lower right in the picture).

Ever since entering South Dakota two days ago (350 miles ago), we started seeing billboard signs for "Come to Wall Drug, as featured on Times/Newsweek/USA Today/Travel and Leisure/etc." Hundreds of signs later, we finally came to this store that practically defines the town (situated above the Badlands "wall").

Its story is actually quite impressive. A couple moved to Wall in search of a smaller town with a church, and labored through many grueling winters with no visitors or business. Finally, they decided to post billboards throughout the state highway advertising "stop here for free ice water!" Given the parched central plains in the summer, flocks of travelers started going to Wall. Now, they have up to 20,000 visitors a day (including a dedicated parking lot just for RVs and tour buses!) going to their museum, souvenir shops, and massive dining rooms.

After a quick lunch at Wall Drug, we headed to Mount Rushmore. Karen and I both noted that, for some reason, both of our families have not had the urge to take us here before (Is it a requisite American thing to do??). Oh well, now we have done the pilgrimage, and learned about how the 4 presidents were selected, how the entire project was done over decades, and what it symbolizes. I was especially intrigued by how, behind the presidential faces, was a separate tomb called the "Hall of Records" that is unaccessible to the public! So much for our tax money... apparently various histories of the United States are stored as etched tablets there. There is also an explanation for who the presidents are, and why Mt Rushmore was sculpted, "in case our civilization ceases to exist and is later found by others." How morbid.

Arriving at Rapid City, South Dakota, we actually were very much looking forward to having dinner at a new French bistro called The Corn Exchange! MJ, the owner and head chef, was trained as an artisan in the food centers of the world, and decided to open up a haut cuisine place in South Dakota. After years of labor and unfortunate events, she finally brought gastronomy to this small city. Her love of food and travels is well documented on her website, and we made it a point to reserve a spot for dining months in advance!

We started with a pear-cucumber soup, and roasted beets with goat cheese and a glass of Gewürztraminer. Karen had a roast quail, while I had the best filet mignon in my life. It was locally-sourced by a small organic farm, and done just right. MJ herself stopped by and we chatted about various restaurants -- she is so nice, and let us take a picture with her.

By the time we returned to our hotel (Fairfield / Marriott Inn), we noted that over half of our vacation is over. The car has reached 40,000 miles on the odometer, and 2,281 miles was clocked so far on this trip alone (averaging ~29 miles per gallon). Tomorrow we head to Cody, Wyoming!

Chicago to Nebraska, then to South Dakota

This morning we woke up really early so that we could drive to the Navy Pier in Chicago for the 9 a.m. architectural boat cruise. It was highly recommended by various people; unfortunately, Chicago's traffic is so bad that we were told to allot 1.5 hours to drive (the 15 miles) downtown during the morning rush hour commute. Actually it wasn't that bad, turned out to be only 45 minutes.

The tour was fabulous; not only did it have cookies and coffee onboard, but the docent knew a lot about each of the buildings. We saw many buildings with characteristics of specific architectural firms (ie: columns, or rounded sides, or art deco style, etc.), and many buildings were designed to be bigger or prettier than those around it. Furthermore, the city was planned with nice pedestrian walkways all along the riverfront, with various restaurants, parks, and new residential condos all located in the heart of town! By the end of the tour, Keith said to Karen, "I wouldn't mind living here!

We quickly left Chicago as we are heading to Omaha, but wasted an hour looking for sunglasses for Keith (he has been driving without sunglasses!). Getting to Omaha requires that we drive through most of the width of Illinois, and all of Iowa, and into Nebraska. We passed tons of cornfields in Illionois and Iowa. Now I know what it is like living in the middle of nowhere. This was really the middle of nowhere--just lots of beautiful farms and corn crops.

We told ourselves that we would try and appreciate something unique about each state. I was looking forward to the pastoral beauty of Iowa and the beauty in simplicity; in the end, I was left seeing that really there was little besides the rolling corn fields. Unfortunately, we also did not have a chance to really get to know the local people.

By the time we arrived in Omaha, it was dark (about 7pm). Our inn, the Cornerstone B&B, is on the national registry of historic buildings. Julie, our innkeeper, was really nice and spent half an hour with us during breakfast explaining that the mansion was originally built for a well-known family by a Chicago architect in the late 1800s. She also explained the growth of Omaha (doubled its population in the last 20 years) and the desire for people to return to Nebraska for the quieter, more traditional way of life.

Living in a historical building turned out to be quite an experience! The room was quite old; the bathroom, for example, only had a claw tub and the shower head hose has to be held by your hand to "shower". All the lights required individual switches, and none of the windows opened. The local area, with a few unoccupied buildings nearby with rusted old cars, made me feel a bit unsafe. However, it really looked a lot more grand during the day, and Julie explained that the area is undergoing a time of revival and reformation (many people are buying the local unoccupied mansions and turning them into B&Bs... if the city allows), and the area is quite safe.

The commercial district of Omaha (Omaha Mutual, etc.) is within 20 blocks of the inn, and looks quite modern. At night, however, this area is completely deserted. Coming from bigger cities, that felt really weird; again, in Nebraska, life is very family oriented. There is no reason to be in the financial district after working hours; our customary expectations from larger cities really do not apply here!

Omaha's old market district is where the original industrial area used to be. The buildings were all purchased after the industry collapsed, and is now a collection of restaurants, shops, etc. It is now the center of nightlife in Omaha. We had dinner here the night before, and noticed everyone was very tall (more than 6 ft!)... Keith finally had his Omaha steak. It was different -- the meat had a very favorful taste, almost gamey in nature compared to typical beef. I'm not sure it was all that it's cracked up to be... especially the entire "grain-fed" marketing about the beef. After all, it seems like around here all the cows are either grain or corn fed (most of the agricultural fields are used to feed the livestock!).

So why did Keith cross the road? Because the next day we drove from Omaha to South Dakota, and passed by fields and fields of sunflowers! Karen watched Keith as he ran across both directions of Interstate 90 to get this picture of the sunflower fields.

While Iowa was about endless corn fields, we heard that South Dakota is more about cows and wheat. We did continue to see many fields of corn, but also many ranches of black cows. The land was much more flat than Iowa. Also, just like our last road trip, we took a rock in the windshield which left us a nice 10" long crack.

After 460 miles, we finally arrived at the western entrance to Badlands National Park, South Dakota. The Badlands is mostly comprised of a maze of buttes and gorges that extend for approximately 100 miles east-west, creating an impassable wall with numerous little pinnacles. The name came from the Sioux Indians, the French explorers, and anyone else who tried to come to this land to farm, or merely to cross.

After grabbing buffalo burgers to go, we drove out to the Panorama Point, a lookout, for sunset. A great thunderstorm to the south gave a massive lightning storm that looked awesome (from far away). It was super nice being able to just have dinner outside, watching the quiet sunset with distant thunder, without anyone nearby (the park was quite empty!).

Western Ohio, Indiana, and Chicago

Thomas explained that Cleveland is a city recovering its economy, and that Cleveland Clinic is the largest employer in the state. After having heard so much about the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western University, and since both Thomas and Sylvia worked in those hospital systems, I asked to go visit these campuses while in town.

Cleveland, like any other city, has beautiful and more seedy parts of town. This is a part of town that my friends drive through every day, complete with blown-out or boarded up windows (perfect for the occasional drug deal). Honestly, I felt it was okay during the summer day time, but make it a lonely snowy dark winter evening, and it was pretty comparable to the worst of Harlem I have seen during my NYC days.

The hospitals were absolutely gorgeous campuses, with tons of construction still in progress. In fact, the Cleveland Clinic was so huge that it has its own Intercontinental Hotel built in! In a city seemingly polar in its social-economic strata, the Clinic sure displays its abundant wealth in spades. The Cleveland Orchestra Hall is an ornate building, and new developed areas like the Eton Mall seem to imply the city has significant potential for growth.

Despite our short visit, it was wonderful seeing Sylvia and Thomas, and her brother Kirk. We had a chance to have brunch at The Original Pancake House. Afterwards, we were on our way to drive across the rest of Ohio and all of Indiana to reach Chicago. We took a quick break in the mid afternoon in the town of South Bend, home of Notre Dame and its football team. The downtown was cute and offered a quick hot chocolate stop; the scariest moment was driving around afterwards, though, looking for a gas station (with the low-fuel light illuminated) and finding several gas stations closed on Sunday. I'll refrain from making assumptions correlating small towns and the availability of gasoline on the weekend.

After a long sit in the Chicago traffic, we finally arrived at the hotel. A nice deep-dish Giordano's Chicago-style pizza was delivered to our room, half without tomato sauce. Mmmm. It's ALL about the pastry-like crust. Slightly salty. More quiche-like than crusty and crunchy. There is a lot of thick mozzarella. In fact, there isn't a lot of sauce and stuff, but it was just the right balance. I think when I go back to the normal world pizza (ie: CPK-style), it will feel a little nude.

Wonderful Breakfast, Corning Glass, and Cleveland

We started our morning with a delicious breakfast prepared by the innkeeper, Lynette. First, a creative fruit plate of baked plum with mascarpone cheese. For the main course, there were two choices. One was corn pancakes with pecan butter, the other a home-made "Miller McMuffin" with baked english muffins, baked eggs, ham, etc. Breakfast was served outside in the patio (gorgeous sunny summer morning), and we shared a table with Beth & Jason, a couple that is in town to be married tomorrow (Sunday), and her parents, Bill and Jackie. Naturally they were very excited, a bit stressed, and allowed us to share in their discussions of what is left to be taken care of.

With a long day ahead of us (we hadto get to Cleveland by 5pm to meet our friends, Sylvia and Thomas), we left the inn and drove around downtown Ithaca for a little longer to pick up sandwiches (for lunch) and to see two of the local waterfalls.

Our drive took us through the town of Corning, NY, named after the large glass manufacturer. The "Corning Glass Museum" provided a perfect mid-morning break in our journey! It was a really modern building, with a special exhibit on glass flowers. Apparently, the techniques of making intricate tiny glass details were designed to be substitutes for living animals and plants, and they served as museum exhibits and teaching aids for professors of natural history. The Blaschkas, two brothers from Czech Republic, created models of more than 1,500 species of invertebrates and plants for various universities.

The intricacy of the glassworks can be seen in some of the pictures. The plants on display, which included the leaves, the roots, and even the little microscopic hairs on the leaves, were reconstructed for authentic academic reproduction. In the orchid example below, the display case was titled, "Is it real?" It was really impossible to tell.

After a quick lunch at the picnic benches outside of the museum, we headed for Cleveland. We arrived at Slyvia & Thomas' house around 5 p.m. and were warmly welcomed to their new home. Since they were attending a baseball game that night, Keith and I drove around their neighborhood and had dinner at a very modern, swanky looking outdoor mall called Eton Village. The decor, flower pots, and outdoor seating patios reminded us of Santana Row in San Jose, and we were a little surprised that there was such a place! The name of the restaurant we ate at was called Paladar, which served Latin American fusion food, such as salmon ceviche, pulled pork, and a lot of seafood dishes. We were able to catch a relaxing dinner outside and enjoy the warm and comfortable summer Cleveland evening!