After the excitement of Carrie Underwood, it was hard to
fall asleep. I woke up Thursday morning early to go get the rental car. Instead
of taking transit, I decided a nice walk would be in order, since the next few
days would be full of long car rides. 8km later, I walked into the Winnipeg
Airport. That’s not something you tend to walk into so it was a bit awkward. We
got a great Dodge Dart and I had a nice conversation with the woman who was
helping us (silly PEI friendliness). I’ve been talking to so many people, one
person in Chicago actually rolled their eyes, like, ‘who is this country
bumpkin!’ I was so excited for the reaction. ‘Me! I’m the weirdo friendly
person!!’
I picked Jenn up, we happily said goodbye to Winnipeg, and
started our long drive. After a few hours we crossed into the States and I got
a surge of energy, just bubbling to be back. I must have talked for 5 minutes
straight about everything I missed about the US – Cheeze-its, Sonic Drive In,
Chick-fil-a, Applebees, Chipotle, Target,, the dollar menu actually being a
dollar at McDonalds and Wendys…hmm, these all seem to revolve around food.
Nonetheless I was happy to be back in the land of cheap food, cheap gas, and
out of Winnipeg.
We arrived at Mall of America, now the 5th
largest mall in North America by a few thousand square feet. It was so much
nicer than West Edmonton. The layout made sense, there was a much better
selection of stores and they were all a really great size. Jenn had a lot of
success and it was fun to introduce her to places not in Canada (that we’ve
found): Wet Seal, Charlotte Rousse, Rue 21, DSW shoes, etc. I managed to
restrain myself (as my bags were full from our last few days of shopping), but
couldn’t resist 2 amazing new pairs of shoes. We grabbed dinner (Chipotle!!!!)
and headed on our way to South Dakota.
Driving through North Dakota was a bit boring. It was pretty
barren, though nice and warm. Minnesota was similar. The grass was tinged with
brown but with more green than you’d see in Texas. There were trees and hills,
but we were clearly in a new area. In South Dakota, it was clearly the plains.
Long stretches where you could see for 100 miles in any direction, perfectly
flat. Nothing really in the distance until you came close to the Black Hills
(Western South Dakota). The scenery changed then. Ponderosa Pines littered the
mountains in the distance, with pine cones creating the effect of black hills.
There were steer on both sides of the highway for nearly the entire distance.
South Dakota is big, taking probably 6 hours to cross it. The skies were
incredible: baby blue with just a touch of clouds. It only increased the
expansive feeling of the plains. You could occasionally see a deep drop-off,
more familiar in Arizona or a small version of the Grand Canyon. Totally
picturesque.
We drove until 3am and stayed the night in a clean, safe,
fiscally frugal Motel 6 in Mitchell South Dakota. Sadly the next day came only
5 hours later and we were back on the road by 8:30am. We stopped next in Wall,
South Dakota. This is a corny Old West town exudes fun. We ate at the Cactus
Cafe, and I enjoyed frybread – an amazing bread associated with Native
Americans. Oh and pie. I had pie a la mode for brunch. Then we wandered around
the Old West shops with cute storefronts like you’d see out of Tombstone,
wandering past moccasins, dream catchers, and old cowboy rope. A bit kitchy,
but fun. We got back in the car and drove into the Black Hills towards Mount
Rushmore. It was surprising as we got closer to the mountain to see
Washington’s head pop around the corner. We knew we were close. The monument
was well organized, as so many national parks are, with information, not too
much education but some, and interactive displays. You could push an old style
detonator and cause explosions on the screen, depicting how they carved out the
heads from the stone. The four presidential heads were a few stories off the
ground, maybe 100 ft? and showed George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore
Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. All presidents that did something great for the
country, as well as expand its borders. I was pleased to relay what each
president to Jenn (as a Canadian she shouldn’t know each person’s claim to fame
just as I don’t know any prime ministers of the past). History has been my
least favorite subject for years, yet I actually remembered in detail what each
president did. We then walked by a ranger talking to a group of 2nd
grade students and listened in as he confirmed what I said. Success! Jenn and I
took a bunch of silly photos, including me doing handstands but Jenn couldn’t
get us all in so there are just my legs and their heads, haha. The site was
majestic and totally worth the drive. We had a blast.
Then we travelled 17 miles to Crazy Horse, the Native
American carving that has been taking place for 60 years or so. It will
eventually be substantially larger (40 times or something) than Mount Rushmore
and depict a Native American’s torso with his arm extended, flowing hair, and
the head of a his horse. Right now it’s his face and the beginning of his
armpit. Should be neat, but I can say, I was there when…. The motivation for
the sculpture is that the Black Hills are considered sacred to the Sioux
Indians. Carving Mount Rushmore there wasn’t the most politically correct move.
We then drove down through the national forest and came
across fields of prairie dogs. They were adorable! Popping their heads up, just
like in pictures, from their tunnel of holes. Once you stopped and looked, they
were everywhere, but these little Timons (from the Lion King – close cousin,
anyway) blended into their surroundings so well. There were also a lot of
bison, within 5 feet of the car. After a bit of research I learned that bison
are actually what we have in North America even though we call them buffalo,
which only exist (outside of zoos) in Africa and Asia. So, these shaggy, giant
beasts were neat to watch for a short while.
Then we drove into Nebraska and headed over to Chicago by
way of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Fun drive. At one point, it started to pour. As
we were driving on the straight, flat plains, you could see a dark grey sheet
in front of us, and a lovely pink and orange sunset behind us. There was clearly
a dividing line on either side of the highway. We drove into the storm, just
heavy rain and fantastic lightening, and passed through it after a few hours.
We could then see the now black sheet behind us, with the occasional lightening
burst, and a beautiful pink and blue on the horizon in front of us. We drove
through the storm, and it was still sunset! A neat experience.
While exiting McDonalds in a po-dunk town in South Dakota, a
cop pulled me over. I haven’t been speeding and just couldn’t figure out the
problem, when I realized my headlights weren’t on. Now I found this funny
because I hadn’t been driving a quarter of a mile and clearly these guys were
bored. They came up to my car, I pulled out my PEI id and the cop, a friendly
guy by the name of Deputy Powers, asked me to sit in the patrol car while he
ran the license. Apparently PEI is not online yet (shocking), so he couldn’t
tell if I was wanted, a murderer, a regular speeder, or just having a blonde
moment. We were having a nice easy conversation and a ticket for the lights
would have been silly, so he let me go. Meanwhile Jenn was in the car waiting
as a dust storm blew through. She thought she was in a Tornado, and a bit
freaked out. I just felt bad for the deputy that had to stand outside while I
was getting my ID run. Nonetheless everything was fine and we drove until 4am
and slept somewhere in Wisconsin in a Super 8.
The next day (Saturday) we were set to drive to Chicago and
see a show, have dinner with my aunt and uncle, and tour the city. Sadly,
tomorrow would begin in only 4 hours, so we made the short time count.
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