Day 10: Sturgis and Mt. Rushmore

August 5, 2011 -  Passing over into South Dakota, I performed what would later become a tradition for me during this trip:  I stopped at the Visitor Center.  Visitor Centers are all over the United States, but the best ones are usually found between the states on major highways.   Here you can stop to stretch your legs, hit the vending machine, or look up some interesting information on the state you happen to be travelling to.  It being extremely early in the morning (the sun was just starting to rise), I decided to take a couple of pictures of an interesting artwork prominently displayed.

Yeah, it's a giant teepee.

Looking up while inside the giant teepee.

Just in case we forgot where we were...

Choosing not to wake up Bruce (who was sleeping very soundly in the passenger seat), I decided to move on and started the journey to Mt. Rushmore.  However, I got a good idea as I was driving past the Visitor Center and ran with it...well, actually drove to it.

Sturgis

For a a quite some time Bruce had been mentioning Sturgis.  The town of Sturgis is famously known as the place to be if you are into motorcycles; yep, that Sturgis.  Motorcycle enthusiasts from all over the world come to this small town every year to participate in the Motorcycle Rally.

Bruce was talking about Sturgis before the trip.  Bruce was talking about Sturgis while we were travelling down.  However, somewhere along the way Bruce got the idea in his head that we didn't have time to go there.  I decided to surprise my buddy.

While Bruce was still asleep, I pulled into Sturgis.  I mean, come on.  It was on the way!

I was exhausted from travelling, so unfortunately, this is the only picture I took.

I got out my last energy drink for Bruce and woke him up.  Handing him the energy drink I told him that we were in Sturgis.  At first, I don't think he believed me.  After assuring him that we were in fact there, I urged him to do some shopping in the gas station we had parked behind.  I know that he wanted to get some memorabilia even if we weren't staying long.  The look on his face when he came back from buying stuff was one I will remember for a long time; he was very happy.

But, we had a deadline, and it was time to hit the road.  I took the opportunity to take a nap.  Luckily, Bruce has a talent of taking pictures while he is driving.

This is what South Dakota looks like while driving.

Apparently, Bruce didn't have to worry about low clearance bridges along the way.

Mt. Rushmore

Bruce drove all the way to Mt. Rushmore while I was still asleep.  He woke me up as we were driving up the mountain to see the sculpture that was carved into a granite rock face that was finished in 1941.

Yes, we drove up with the camper and the trailer in tow.  When we got to the parking lot, the attendant seemed surprised to see us.  The roads are very steep and very windy. How Bruce managed to drive our setup up that mountain still amazes me.

We managed to get glimpses of Mt. Rushmore on our way up the mountain.  Luckily I was awake enough to take some pictures at Bruce's insistence.

Mt. Rushmore from a distance.

Mt. Rushmore sign.  Thank goodness, I almost forgot where I was.

A Wild Roadside Port-A-Potty...elusive and hard to photograph.

Once at the Mt. Rushmore National Park, Bruce and I took some more  pictures...

Humberto wanted his photo too.

As did Batman.  He's very photogenic.

And some more pictures...

Mt. Rushmore.

Mt. Rushmore, again.

Did you expect something different?

Then we went shopping.  There are two gift shops at Mt. Rushmore, and Bruce and I visited both.  We purchased a lot of neat things to commemorate our visit.  We even got matching shirts; with the caveat agreed by both of us that we couldn't both wear the same shirts on the same day.  We didn't want people to think we were a couple or anything.

The Trip Down the Mountain

After sightseeing we headed down the mountain.  This is where the truck wasn't very happy.  We weigh as much as a semi truck and the brakes weren't happy with us at all.  We managed to get back down the hill and into the tourist town of Keystone.  I was asleep the first time we drove through this tourist trap, so this was the first time that I saw it.

Keystone; for those who need to shop more than what was provided at the monument.

While Bruce "parked", I ran into the post office to send out some of the postcards we had purchased earlier.  Racing back out to the truck, we continued our drive.  Leaving the town of Keystone, passed an interesting feature.

Driving through this was pretty cool.

Back on the Road

After our side trips for the day, we continued on our journey.  Bruce did most of the driving during the day, so I had good opportunities to take some more pictures of South Dakota in between gas stops and ice cream.

South Dakota through the looking glass.

South Dakota is flat.

A common scene during our travels, the good old Interstate.

I can't think of a good caption for this one.

Iowa By Night

Eventually we drove all the way through South Dakota and made our way into Iowa, "The Hawkeye State."  Unfortunately, this Visitor's Center was rather dull and we continued driving along our way.  When darkness started to fall, it was once again my turn to take the wheel.

I can't say that Iowa looks that much different from South Dakota, even in the dusk.  I drove through all the way without having to stop except for a couple of times.  In the morning we should be over the Mississippi River, and one step closer to our deadline at the airport.

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Day 9: Montana and Wyoming

August 4, 2011 - We woke up today ready to travel.  We had to reach Pittsburgh by a certain date to pick up Bruce's family from the airport.  We were on a schedule, a schedule with no lead way at all.  Our first step was to get the camper ready to go; which involved some arguing and posturing on both our parts.  However, the camper was squared away and ready to go in a good amount of time; with only a few denizens of the campground watching our antics.

These camp robbers were everywhere...

Travelling Montana

With Missoula behind us, Bruce and I travelled the length and breadth of the land.  The scenery was never dull.  Mountains were eventually replaced by plains, which gave way to mountains again.  The scenery always changed; and in reality, I was thankful for it.

Hills are a major feature in Montana besides cows.

If you look hard in the right hand corner, you can see Julie Andrews.

Interstate 90; we've been together for many miles.

The hills in the beginning of the days trip reminded me of the hills I grew up around in California.  Thankfully the roads didn't roll like the hills did; I'm not sure if our stomachs could stand the lurching up and down as if we were on a ship at sea.  Luckily for Bruce and myself, the roads were in excellent repair and quite level.

Eventually we reached the plains of Montana, an area between Bozeman and Billings.  This part of Montana looks to be a part of The Great Plains, and it was nice to see what was in store for us in the very near future.  We arrived just in time to witness a large storm was rolling in across the undulating fields.  The plains were simply amazing, and the coming storm added a certain energy to the whole landscape.

Bruce and I stopped at a gas station to fill up the tank and our stomachs.  Home cooked meals don't enter our minds much anymore; we survive off of diners and the sandwiches in the refrigerator at the gas station.  Beef jerky is my friend while Bruce enjoys his chocolate milk and both of us have killed off multitudes of six-packs of energy drinks.  I sometimes remember what home-cooked meals tasted like; in my dreams.

Humberto stretches his legs at a pit-stop in Montana.

Storm coming in...

...Bruce says it's already here.

Wyoming

Past Billings we made our way South, determined to cut across Wyoming that night in order to make it to the airport in Pennsylvania.  This meant that Bruce and I had to drive all day and all night, alternating often between the two of us; much like what we did through most of Canada.  We had to make it to the airport on time, and I understood Bruce's predicament.  I was more than happy to help him reach his goals, but at the same time was growing slightly frustrated with taking pictures out of the window as we zoomed by things.

When it comes to friendships and helping your buddies; I will always roll up my sleeves.  I value the friendship between Bruce and myself more than a lot of things; including getting crisp photographs.

With the storm behind us in Montana, I was able to photograph an amazing sunset in "The Cowboy State", also known as Wyoming.

National Geographic here I come!

And just like that!  It was gone.

I  was the one who drove all night through Wyoming, and I only stopped to get gasoline in Moorcroft. The trip was very dark, nothing could be seen at all.  You could not see the sky and you couldn't see past the headlights.  There were several times that I thought there was a low clearance tunnel ahead or a very low bridge simply because it was so dark.  It scared me a couple of times, but I managed to push through and we made our way safely out of Wyoming and into "The Mount Rushmore State", South Dakota.

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Day 8: Idaho and Montana

August 3, 2011 - After what seemed like eternity in Walmart this morning, we finally headed out of Spokane. Don't get me wrong, I love traveling. However, once you've been in a destination long enough to know where the major stores are you come dangerously close to living there. It was getting to the point to where we didn't really need the TomTom to find our way around. That's bad.

Idaho

We quickly passed through Washington and into what is called "the panhandle" of Idaho. This short stretch of state is barely recognizable as different except for the welcome sign. Bruce and I stayed long enough to toss the football back and forth.

A nice relaxing stop just to say we stayed over in Idaho.

Montana, Part One

Montana is the fourth largest state in The Union. Besides having beautiful hills and wooded scenes, Montana has a thing for bears (no wonder I liked it over there so much).  Even though Southern Montana is very mountainous, the infrastructure is relatively level. There were only a couple of parts where the truck and its load struggled to climb.

Montana...while driving.

Silver Dollars Bar & Gift

One of the first tourist traps that we stopped at was 500,000 Silver $'s. The place gets it's name from the silver dollars that patrons to the bar have left over the course of the bars tenure. Incidentally, there are more silver dollars than 500,000; the number keeps rising.

Big and bold, this sign caught our attention.

Batman was busy shopping, so Humberto posed for the camera.

The attached gift shop had a wide variety of Montana themed items, Native American crafts, and a wide assortment of other knick-knacks We spent way too much time browsing around that we blew our planned stopover point and had to choose another location.

However, we escaped with plenty of fun stuff...probably too much stuff.  I even got Bruce a mounted jackelope head for the camper.  I figured Bruce could use it to hang his hats on.

Kampgrounds of America

We ended up trying to find a RV campground, since, uh, we had a camper now. Using one of Bruce's apps on his phone, we happened to find a couple of them. In the end, it was the military discount that persuaded us to go with the Kampgrounds of America site.

The site was nice; full hookup for very little money. Additionally, they had a store, shower facility, and breakfast in the morning. In all, it was a great way to start the camper portion of our trip.

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Day 7: A Camper and a Star to Steer Her By

August 2, 2011 - With the camper firmly in our grasp (and attached to the truck as well) we utilized the WiFi connection at the place we were staying before making the push to get the camper and trailer set up the way we needed.  It took us a while, but we managed to get out the door with some time to spare.

Getting the Camper Ready

The first stop was to get to Blue Crick RV for them to install the much desired and in my own personal opinion, the most vital piece of equipment known to this Alaskan; the air conditioner.  The process took forever, so we amused ouselves first by shopping...

We had more, I just couldn't get a picture of it all at once.

...then by walking.  We walked to get something to eat, check out the bank, and ended up at Walmart when they called us to let us know the camper was done.  We graciously accepted the offer of a free shuttle back to the shop.  I still don't know how long the walking part was, and honestly, not really interested.

The Night of Long Night

Perhaps the worst part of this trip would be the final part of this day; getting the camper ready for the exit from Spokane in the morning.  We had purchased items that we still needed from Walmart and set about finding additional supplies to help make the camper fit the truck better and work properly when we got it out on the road.

When we finally found a hardware store, we managed to make it back to the Air Force Base late at night.  With no food in my system except from lunch (followed by a brisk walk), I was not in the mood to be playing around.  Unfortunately, when I get hungry and tired, I get cranky.  Poor Bruce must think I'm crazy.

After adjusting the camper and trying to find camper supplies in the trailer, we decided to call it a night, or should I say. I did.  I was really of no use after doing certain tasks so I went to bed.  Bruce stayed up working on other things until calling it a night in the very early morning.

Tomorrow we leave Spokane.  I'm excited to continue forward because many more adventures await us.

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Day 6: Escape From Canada

August 1, 2011 - After traveling down through the rest of Canada, taking turns with Bruce to make sure we made it to our destination safely, we made it to the border crossing.  Except for the fact that the crossing station didn't open for a couple more hours, the trip to the border was mildly uneventful.

Wanting to make it to Spokane quickly, we decided to ask Claudia, our temperamental secretary (yes, I came up with a name for our navigational device) to get us to the border crossing into the United States.  Claudia has a great sense of adventure and likes to take us on dirt roads and through quiet residential areas.

Escape!

We decided to go to the next border crossing in Grand Forks; in which incidentally enough, I didn't see any forks or spoons or anything like that...false advertisement.  From there, we passed through the US border with no problems.  They did ask us to open the trailer, but that was really it.  After chatting with the board border guards for a while, we returned to the United States.

Washington

It was nice to be back in our own country.  We welcomed back the mile measurements and cheered for the awesome infrastructure.  While in all honesty, Washington's vistas do not differ from those of Southern Canada,it had a certain feel to it, what we call American  soil.
Washington is pretty, even though they can be considered going through a drought.  Medium sized mountains littered the landscape until we reached Spokane, in which it quickly turned to flat lands.  We familiarized ourselves with the local area in which most of the next days work would start.

Introducing the Camper:  Home Away From Home

Just got the truck under our new home.

This is Bruce's new camper.  This is the reason why we stopped in Spokane instead of coming out of Canada towards North Dakota.  It is a Northern Lite truck camper, and it has many amenities that regular camping simply doesn't have.  Besides having a bed, a dinette corner, and a little kitchen, the camper also has a wet bathroom.  This means that it can be used as a shower or a bathroom.

We got to stay at the local Air Force base, and for the second time since this trip started I was able to enjoy an air-conditioned room with a bed.  I know that on this trip we will be staying in the camper once we get it, so while it may seem funny to talk about a real bed, trust me on this.

Tomorrow we start work on the camper and will continue our trip when it is completed.

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Day 5: Still Driving

July 31, 2011 - After the scary drive to Kamloops, I decided to let Bruce drive down the mountain.  I took a nap only to have Bruce wake me up, an unknown amount of time later and while it was still dark.  Disoriented and still sleepy, I let Bruce go to sleep as I quickly woke myself up by running around the truck a couple of times.  Then, getting into the driver's seat, I continued the journey to the border with only the TomTom to keep me company as Bruce dozed in the passenger seat.

I drove forever in the dark following the brightly lit TomTom's insistent urging that I continue in certain directions.  A left turn here, a right here.  She took me to places that I would have never seen before, and at the same time, never wish to see again.  The experience reminded me of some type of weird tale; a odd mixture of Mrs. Todd's Shortcut and Crouch End, both by Stephen King.  The road became obviously less travelled, and quite alone.

We went the back roads...the very back roads.  Up several mountain passes and down again.  Finally we were on flat ground just as the sun was starting to rise in the morning.  I thankfully pulled over and woke up my battle buddy, who promptly took over and started off towards our next destination; the American-Canadian border.

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Day 4: Canadian Fun

July 30, 2011 - Waking up in a nice soft bed was an awesome experience. For the past couple of days Bruce and I were taking naps in the passenger seat; not very comfortable. Sadly, however, we were on a time schedule, so the bed was quickly replaced with the truck seat in record time.

The City of Dawson's Creek was quite so we decided to check out a couple of the tourist spots. In this town, the tourist spots are Milepost 0 of the Alaska Highway...and...nah, that's about it. The historic mile marker is located in the downtown section. Because there was no traffic, we were able to get up close and personal with the marker.

Milepost 0 in Dawson Creek, BC.

After that, we decided to go to the old milepost marker, the original one. This milepost is buried under a stone cairn with signs and interpretive signs around it. The tradition is for people who are leaving for Alaska to take a picture here with the vehicle pointed the direction that the arrow points to. Bruce and I decided to take a picture of the truck facing the opposite direction since we were headed the wrong way.

You should have seen people stare at us as we took this picture;
 they thought we were crazy.

Rain 2 Kilometers

After leaving town, we headed towards Prince George. The trip took us through some beautiful and scenic British Columbia and was wrought with strange weather patterns, wildlife, and the elusive Roadside Port-a-potty.

Yes, there was road construction ahead. We didn't have to wait for very long, and were off down the road within a half hour. The trip took us through some mountains and a large section of forest, and in all, was an amazing trip. Then it rained.

The main thing about any part of the Alaska Highway is mud. Some roads can be dirt or just plain dirty. Couple that with rain and you got yourself a mess. However, Bruce and I decided to turn what could be considered a minor nuisance and change it into something fun.

Alaskans having fun.

We then passed through a lake system and into Prince George. We only stopped long enough to get a bite to eat and some gas before the next leg of our journey.

The Scariest Drive of My Life

It was my turn to drive as we went to the city of Kamloops. Kamloops is up in the mountains, this fact is important to remember for the rest of the tale.  This has to have been the worst driving experience in my life...yes, even worse than Thompson Pass in the fog.  Normally you start these tales of with the classic "no (explicative), there I was" or what Bruce recommended; "I had just changed my shorts." You choose your favorite one.

The roads started off just fine, straight, wide, and well repaired. This changed quickly as soon as the sun went down.  Suddenly the road started to climb. While this wouldn't normally this wouldn't be a problem except there was no barrier between me and the inky blackness on the right side that I took as a massive drop.  On top of that, for an hour and a half there were no road lines, no center and no edges. It was as if the local government ran out of paint. Basically all I had was an inky black ribbon in a midnight black sky.

By the time we arrived in Kamloops my face was white, my fingers hurt, and my life flashed before my eyes at least a dozen times.

Towards The Border

After free WiFi and a burger in Kamloops we headed out towards the US border.  The roads continued to be windy, but on mostly flat ground. Additionally, the road quality started getting better as we neared the border.

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