video, anyone?

driving through deadwood after the corduroy vinyl show saturday night.


driving through new mexico this afternoon. i wanted to completely drain the battery so i could give it a fresh charge ... and a quick video did the trick.

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'becca is ready for bed.

day five

the drive home was an early start and included another trip down the service road to the almost hidden block of land. i couldn't resist. the sunrise was simply gorgeous. and so long as i had to be awake & driving down the interstate ... i might as well take advantage of the scenery.


i hit one storm in iowa, but the rest of the drive was smooth sailing.

stats on the trip, for those of you who (like me) are totally interested in this stuff. a total of 29 hours of driving (14 there, 15 back because of the sunrise photos). a total of 1925.7 miles round trip. average speed of 68.2 miles per hour (i tried getting that right at 70, but there was a lot of construction working against me). average fuel economy 30.2 mpg.

and during the trip, my odometer ended in a five or a zero 5 times. :)

day four

sunday morning we drove to the badlands. we actually drove past the national park in search of a block of land you just barely get a glimpse of from the interstate. one service road & one gravel road later and we were there.


from there we headed to the national park, stopping to photograph this fabulous rundown service station & restaurant.


i've mentioned that i love broken down old buildings, right?


and then into the park. the badlands were amazing. beyond words.


i'd like to camp in the park during my next visit. be there to shoot the sunset, be amazed at the number of stars and then wake up to get the sunrise. yes, there must be a second trip.

day three

saturday morning started with a drive through sturgis, deadwood & lead. both this photo


and this one are from deadwood. from there we headed up to spearfish canyon.


found an old car or two on the side of the road along the way. so, of course, we stopped to take photos.


spearfish canyon & area were beautiful. we went to three different waterfalls - this one was my favorite. from where i was standing to take this photo i could feel the spray coming off the falls. absolutely fabulous.

after our drive back from spearfish canyon, we headed to the quilt shop. but, we found ourselves with a little extra time, and we just happened to be by this fabulous looking tattoo & piercing shop ...


so i took advantage of the opportunity to get my nose pierced. i know it's hard to see in this photo,


so here's an obscenely close-up photo to prove there's really a stud there. so far so good with the healing. i was told to wait 30 days before taking it out. i waited 3 - oops. :) i was drying my face one morning & got the stud caught in the loopies on my towel. it went back in without too much problem, though. and today it's comfortable enough that i forget it's there and then suddenly think i've lost it.

lost the stud, that is. not lost it as in lost it. i feel like that without reference to my new facial adornment. ;)


we walked around part of downtown rapid city that evening, including art alley - basically an alley given to artists to graffiti to their hearts delight. it's a pretty cool place.


our after-downtown drive took us past these barns. i haven't the ability to explain why i love old, broken down buildings. but i certainly do enjoy photographing them.

if you're interested, i uploaded a bunch of my photos to my flickr account. you can either click on the flickr box on the right, or visit this link to view them. if you view them as a slideshow, you can click on the i in the center of the photo & it will show you the descriptions i put in to explain what's what.

day two

we spent the fourth of july at mount rushmore. fitting, right? it was spectacular. i commented that they were smaller that i was expecting ... but now as i rethink that, i wonder if what i really expected was to be able to get closer to them. and, obviously, if we'd been closer they would have been larger. because i understand that they're flippin' huge. really, i do. i mean, that park ranger on lincoln's head looked pretty tiny in comparison (he's not in the photo, stop looking for him). but how cool would it be to be able to get close enough to realize how tiny you were in comparison? i'm just saying ...


we didn't drive up to crazy horse, but they're carving it close enough to the road it's not necessary. i have no doubt this will also be spectacular when they get it done. and then lynn tells me they have this thing each year where people walk out along his arm? see, that's the kind of up close & personal experience that will make you feel tiny in comparison.


so we're driving through custer state park ... and lynn says something along the lines of "it would great if you would get to see a buffalo". i, of course, agree - but we know there's a chance we won't see a single buffalo. we come around this curve and a motorcyclist coming the other direction is motioning off to the right side of the road. the people ahead of us have slowed and everyone has their cameras out. sure enough - there's a single buffalo. just hanging out. took a few photos of him lying down and made a comment like "i wish he'd stand up" ... and, of course, he did. i'm pretty sure he gave me a dirty look when he stood up though. something like "you'd better appreciate this, lady. i was really comfortable lying down, ya know." i did appreciate it, mr. buffalo. i did.


so we keep driving. and come across a second buffalo. this one did not stand up for us. but he did point out how easy it is to miss a buffalo if you're not looking for him. with the grass as tall as it is - he kinda looks like a big rock. but at this point, i'm pretty satisfied. i mean, i got to see two buffalo at pretty close range. we weren't more than 30 feet from either of these guys.


and then we came across the herd. kid you not, at least 200 buffalo ...


all crossing the street between the cars. it was amazing. lots of babies in the group - and we all know how cute things are in miniature. and if i'd felt like being ridiculously stupid, i could've easily touched them as they walked by the car. easily. seriously amazing.


one last view of mount rushmore through one of the tunnels leading to the pigtail bridges. i do love bridges. :)

day one

if you didn't see the sunrise thursday morning ... you missed a nice one. i tried pretty hard to get a good photo of it as i was driving out of town. this is the best i got. i mean, i could only do so much as i was driving down the interstate at 75 miles an hour. i mean, 65 miles an hour. i was still in illinois as the sun rose. :)


saw a truck of turkeys around 6:30 a.m. - you can fit a lot of turkeys in a truck. good time to stop for a first breakfast.


cruising through iowa (speed limit's up to 70 at this point) around 10:30 a.m. - right around when i stopped for my second breakfast. i really enjoy driving through iowa. i find the hilly farm land to be quite beautiful and relaxing. honestly. (nothing i can say here will make that sound less sarcastic, will it? i'm being completely serious.)


i made it into south dakota early in the afternoon. oh yeah, minor detail i haven't told you yet. i decided to drive to south dakota this weekend. :) i decided on tuesday night that i would leave wednesday after work - drive several hours, sack out in a hotel & finish the drive thursday. then spent all day wednesday at work pricing flights into rapid city - because it just made more sense to fly than drive. by the time i left work wednesday i'd decided there was no way i could afford the trip. it was just too expensive. came home feeling defeated but distracting myself with plans of gardening, sewing & relaxing for my five day weekend. came home wednesday night, read some e-mails & called lynn. by the time we were halfway through our conversation i'd decided i was driving to south dakota, regardless of the price of gas. actually, halfway through our conversation i realized i'd started packing ... so i took that as a sign & went with it. :)

i left the house around 4:15 a.m. thursday. drove straight through - 14 hours on pure adrenaline. lynn didn't know i was coming. actually, i thought she might know ... because i may have hinted at it too much once i realized i was packing as we talked on the phone. but the element of surprise is huge with me. i love surprising people. so the adrenaline made the trip out pass very easily. i made it into town around 5:30 p.m. (if you're doing the math on that, keep in mind rapid city is an hour behind chicago.) and almost made it to her front door before she realized i was there.


and it turns out south dakota is pretty to drive through, as well. with better speed limits. ;)