Final Comments - Summer 2009

Final Comments

August 8: This entry is just a brief wrap-up. You can go back to July 27 to start at the beginning of this trip. I headed out almost two weeks ago in a pretty bad rainstorm. The weather was a problem off and on the whole way north and west. The way back was mostly dry and in some cases very hot. I visited 13 cities with only two repeats (Oklahoma City and Billings, MT). The total mileage was about 3,825. This wasn't my longest trip. I went from LA to Houston and back (5,000 miles total) in about as many days. Still, it was a lot more than I should have done to make it a fun trip. Next time, I will probably spend two days in every significant city. Definitely I would have liked to spend more time in Denver and also Oklahoma City. Even Selina, KS had more interesting buildings in it than I expected. If there had been enough time to relax and walk around, I might have found out more.

For next time a few things:
- order city maps online before the trip
- Look into other ways to gather and print zoning maps. Although stopping in City Halls is fun (to me), obviously, the whole thing is going online and print maps are going to go away.
- Don't go so far afield next time. Why travel 2,300 miles and just get an overview of each city.

Finally, This was my first time blogging a trip. What I didn't like was the limit on pictures (there were some formatting issues as well). I many more pictures than are put in the blog. I'm thinking of using Flickr to store my pictures and reference the streams in the blog. I'm also not sure the blog ordering really works. Most people will come across this post first and, although a link to the beginning is provided, a lot of people will read the trip in reverse order. I'm open to constructive comments and suggestions, but will decide how to proceed with this blog based primarily on my goals of recording my trips.

Thanks for looking in.

Ted Dune


PS: Although my next adventure probably won't be until next year (Christmas doesn't count), I will probably post some of my previous trips here as well. I have two trips that are fully digital. After that I have to go searching through old notebooks and scanning old fashioned photographs. Hopefully I will be able to post something new sometime in September.

Oklahoma City and Home

August 7: Post 2 - I started by finding City Hall. Security directed me to another building. I found the right department after a bit of looking, but they didn't have any maps available and the computer person was out today (Friday). I did get a website to go visit, but it won't get me 3 ft x 3 ft color maps. I left my contact information and got the name and number of an engineer. In theory the person is supposed to contact me when he is back in the office. We'll see what comes of it.


After that little adventure, in the very hot sun, I decided to check out the bicentennial park next to City Hall. It is next to the museum of art and leads to the music hall. It's also a camp for the homeless. I stayed to the middle of the park and walked toward the music hall. At the other end of the park are a series of plaques that, I think tell the history of Oklahoma (I didn't have time to read them all). There was also a central plaque commemorating the park.


Next I headed over to the Botanical Gardens and something called the Crystal Bridge. The gardens were really a large pond with a winding road, and several stairs to walk around various places on the grounds. The Crystal Bridge was an enclosed cylinder that had a contained tropical forest. It was decorated with various kids themes such as Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan. My favorite was a dragon who's head is at the top of a little waterfall at the beginning of the tour. The nostrils are venting steam in addition to the water seemingly coming from its mouth. Back to the gardens outside, I wandered around for a while and got some shots of a whale fountain that actually moved every now and then. I couldn't tell whether the movements were random or tied to some mechanism below the water. Still it was an amusing surprise when I realized it had moved.

After that, rather than going to the museum I decided to drive up to the state capital (3 capitals in 3 days - a record for me). There was a risk because the guidebook said the capital closed at 3 PM. The drive up was straightforward but it was interesting that Oklahoma seems to have built a highway around the capital, I guess to get people where they want to go in a hurry. I parked in a satellite lot and took a tunnel under the capital. The inside, like most, was very impressive. Someone seemed to have set up one of the floors for a reception or something, but otherwise there seemed to be only guards and other tourists.

I went outside to take pictures of the exterior and right after I saw the two statues out front, I saw the oil well (for Philips 66) right out by the front parking lot. Then I noticed several others in the distance. People were heading to their cars as I was taking pictures.

Around the back of the Capitol there was a park set up with a stone fountain in the middle. It was a very nice contemplation area, although I'm not sure how much it is actually used.

Done with pictures, I figured I would walk across the parking lot and then the highway, which hadn't been particularly busy when I had arrived. Unfortunately, it was now past 5 PM and the traffic had picked up. Eventually, I went back to the front of the building and the security person let me back in.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my time in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Then it was back on the road to head home. Getting back on the freeway was less of a problem than the last time I was there. However, rush hour and some closed lanes made the first 30 miles or so very slow, almost like LA or Denver (see previous post). After I was out of the influence of Oklahoma City the speed picked up, except for the occasional construction. My exit in Dallas was sooner than I expected, but that was find with me.

I was back safely and the end of another adventure.


TTFN

Salina, KS and down to Oklahoma City

August 7: Post 1 - After getting up and having breakfast I first looked for a map (unsuccessfully) and then headed for town hall - I had an address and had been given some other directions by a clerk last night. I had no problem finding the town hall, but the building is also the town library, so I actually parked at the wrong end of the building and had to walk around to the other side (good exercise). I started out at the county side of the building and was directed to the city side of the building. Then I went from the zoning office to the GIS area. One of the engineers came out and after I told them I was leaving as soon as possible, he went back and started printing out a new map. I paid at the cashiers and then waited about half an hour. While I was waiting I noticed they had a free map of the city on the table, so I was able to get a road map finally. I was out before 10 AM.

The town (technically a city) was actually a fairly good size and took a while to drive back to the freeway entrance. I noticed a few other government-looking buildings but didn't have time to stop. I did stop for some drinks before I left the city and came across an area with a bunch of tombstones and a house with a stone engraving sign on it. I wasn't sure if the stones were business samples on the front lawn or an old city grave.

The drive down to Oklahoma city (about 250 miles) went generally according to schedule. I made it down at about 2:30 PM. I stopped for gas about 30 miles outside of the city. I noticed I wasn't getting as good gas mileage as I thought I should (about 38 mpg instead of something over 40). I decided I should keep track of the octane rating on my next trip.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my time in Salina, Kansas.

Denver, CO and the Long Drive

August 6: After getting out of the hotel, a little late, I headed back into downtown and found an all day parking lot ($5 dollars for 30 minutes, $10 dollars maximum?) right between City Hall and the Denver Mint. Then I found out that the Mint works with reservations and over the summer, these are filled up weeks in advance. I got a standby ticket (lucky 13) and came back at 11:30.

While I waited, I went looking for a zoning map. After asking in City Hall, I got sent over to the Webb building where zoning was. After a little confusion about protocol for talking to people at zoning one of the people at the desk gave me a small zoning map of the city, which was fine.

After that I went over to the City Park and took pictures of the sculptures and a nice amphitheater on one side of the park. Then I went to the Capital. Outside was a nice veterans memorial. The Capital was classic capital building architecture. Also, I didn't understand the full architecture of City Hall until I got up to the Capital and looked back. From going inside and from the side facing the Mint, it looked like a boring city hall (the side facing the mint was where prisoners were dropped off).


Inside the Capital, there were dozens of quilts for some reason I didn't quite understand. I was able to see three floors but couldn't get into the walkway around the dome or into the galleries for either the House or Senate. Oh well. It was very well kept up and very impressive. I saw people cleaning the various places and there were multiple tours going on. Lights were being set up for some video production as well.



Then it was getting towards 11:30, so I headed back, dumped my camera in the car and headed to the tour entrance with the stand-bys and those who had actual reservations. It was a nail biter. I think they let a father and daughter in after me and that was it. The tour was neat. I remember a similar tour at the Philadelphia mint, probably when I was in eight grade. They had lots of old stuff from previous methods of making, packing and shipping coins. There didn't seem to be too many people on the floor, but this was the lunch hour tour.


After the mint, I went to the art museum. I had wanted to go to the history museum, but I didn't quite know where that was, whereas the art museum was just across from the Capital. There was a great section on western art (meaning the American West) both historic and modern. In the modern section there was an odd piece called Fox Games. I also stumbled across a video piece by Bjorn Melhus called "Captain", mainly because it used sound effects, music and VO from the original Star Trek.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my time in Denver, Colorado.

As it got to 2 PM Denver time, I checked the map and headed back out to 25N and then 70E. This was the long hall. After 7 hours and 15 minutes I made it to Salina at about 10:15 PM having traveled 488 miles. Tomorrow is another long hall, but It's broken up by a stop in Oklahoma City.

TTFN

Cheyenne, WY and the road to Denver, CO

As you may have noticed, my posts are a day late (both the previous and this). Probably I won't post again until Saturday, wrapping up my trip.

August 5: Post 2 - I finally made it to Cheyenne at about 2:30 PM. The directions to City Hall were correct and, other than some construction blocking a street, I had no problem getting to the right building. This was one of the few times someone had a map readily available. It made for a very quick transaction. The person who sold me the map also had a street map of Cheyenne, so I was saved from bumping around semi-blindly looking for various sites. Thus equipped, I moved on to the state capital.


The weather had been nice all day, until I got out of the car to take some pictures of the capital. It started raining right then. I decided to go into the capital first and hope that the rain would let up before I came out. I was really impressed by the amount of material they had both inside and outside the Capital. Among other things were a small slice from a beam from the World Trade Towers, a stuffed buffalo that was well known in the state and a bust of Lincoln. They had framed pictures of all of the Governors as well as all of the legislators since the state was founded. I did get to see both chambers although no one was in them (it is August) and unfortunately the lights were off, so my pictures were either grainy or blurry.

Outside there were also quite a few statues and markers. There was a replica of the Liberty Bell on one corner, a statue of a citizen pledging into the military (I think for the Spanish American War) and (my favorite) a statue of a cowboy on a bronco.

The rain had let up but was still going down. I went on to my next place of interest - the Historic Governor's Mansion. No trouble finding it. I was in a hurry to get inside due to the rain. I saw a video about the mansion and the restoration. It was interesting that they didn't settle on one period for the mansion but chose different eras for different parts of the mansion, up to 1970s, when the Governor moved to a new mansion. Part of the reason was practical. Through it's time from the turn of the century until the 1970s, the mansion underwent periodic renovation. In some cases (such as the kitchen) the amount of work to change a room back to it's turn of the century appearance would have been very expensive. An amusing room was the bomb shelter in the basement. Everyone seems to agree that it would not have been very effective in the event of a nuclear attack, but it did reflect the thoughts about how to deal with nuclear war at the time. By the time I had viewed all of the rooms, the rain had stopped and I could get some decent exterior shots.

Finally, I went to the Train Depot Museum near the actively running Cheyenne rail yards. It was a bit odd going through the gift shop to get to the museum. Once I figured that out, I was able to get in. The presentations described the growth of Cheyenne as the railroad came through and how the railroad changed over the year. There was a sort of side exhibit on the second floor showing the type of luggage and things people brought with them when travelling. The exhibit is in the actual baggage room and had stories about the different types of travellers that used the train. Time was running late, so I finished up the exhibits in a bit of a rush. When I came out into the giftshop there was a large number of people in the shop (probably a tour group), so I exitted immediately and planned my way out of Cheyenne.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my time in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Once I was on the road, I only had about 100 miles to go to get to Denver. I stopped in Loveland and was able to purchase a map of Denver, so I wasn't going to get lost. I was meeting my schedule pretty well until about 5 miles from my exit. Some bails of straw had been dumped into the road, so two lanes were cut off. I was stuck in traffic, feeling I was back in LA, for about 30 minutes. However, the wait aggravated me enough, that my stay in Denver is probably tainted. I couldn't find my hotel and had to call. Even with further directions I had to turn around. Also, the hotel was not really where I wanted to be (I had mixed up east and west in the address). Anyway, I made it, now I'll get some rest.

TTFN

Casper, WY

August 5: Post 1 - In the morning, after breakfast, I headed back to City Hall. I got there a little before 9 AM, but they were open. After a few questions, I got to the right person to get a map. However, they had to print a new map which would take an hour or so. In that case, I decided to go up to the Tate Geology Museum. But first, I went out and took a few more pictures of City Hall. The morning was much brighter than last evening so I got a cleaner picture.


As I mentioned before, The Hall of Justice was next to City Hall. I took a picture of that as well this morning. It didn't come out very well, so I've provided a shot from yesterday. I didn't go in, but it was right next to City Hall.






So I drove up to Casper College, but was unsuccessful finding Tate. I stopped in the library and they showed me where the museum was relative to them. The woman who was helping me made a copy of the map she used so I has something to use. After using the map I found the museum without any problems.

The museum was one open room with a lot of exhibits. Once side actually deals with the chemistry of minerals and oil. However, the rest of the room is devoted to bones and archeology finds. This includes a few assembled skeletons or skeletal sections. They also had some drawers that could be opened to find some rocks to look at and feel. It took about 45 minutes to go through, which was about right for my schedule.

After the museum, I went back to City Hall. Unfortunately, the drawing still hadn't been produced, so I made arrangements for them to mail the image to me.

Finally, I went to the Fort Casper Museum and historic site. The museum dealt primarily with early settlement and development of oil in the area. I didn't take any pictures. Outside was a 1930s reconstruction of Fort Casper. Most of the rooms had different functions. There was actually a switch between the buildings being used for trading and as an army post. I did get some pictures of this which are combined above.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my time in Casper, Wyoming.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from the previous evening that I didn't post yesterday.

After I finished with Fort Casper, I had to get out of town in order to make it to Cheyenne before all of the sites closed. That's the subject of my next post.

Billings, MT (day 2) and into Wyoming

August 4: Morning in Billings. I made two stops before leaving town.

First was a walk down the street to the Northern Pacific Railway station. The station (actually several buildings) was built sometime in the 1880s or 1890s and served Billings until the 1970s when train passenger travel to Billings stopped (all dates based on memory). The tracks are still used for freight trains, but there are no stops at the the Billings station. The place was purchased and rehabilitated some years later and now the main building is used for events such as weddings. Two of the buildings are rented as office space. I got a lot of this information talking to a woman at the place. There had been a wedding there on August 1 and some things were still stored in various rooms the clear space for the wedding. I did take some pictures inside the buildings but none really turned out. The was a situation where flash would have been useful.

After checking out from the hotel I drove down to the Moss Mansion. This was build around the turn of the century by a locally prominent family. This time I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside. Although built in the 1900s, it had electricity, hot and cold water and forced air heating (all very expensive at the time). The last of the family (the last daughter for the original tycoon) died around 1984 and the building passed into an historical group, so it was never in severe disrepair, although several rooms needed repair either due to water damage, cracking or wear. Each of the rooms had it's own look and theme. Interestingly, although there were plans for a third floor ballroom, plans were scotched due to financial issues thus leaving the third floor largely unfinished (it became maid's quarters). A lot of the original furniture was left in.

Finally, here's a picture of the Bighorn Sheep art piece that I mentioned previously. Similar in style to the horse. Not much else to say.

After finishing at the mansion I made my way back to the freeway and headed east - backtracking my original route to Billings. I had thought I would be retracing my route on 90E for 50 miles or so. It turns out I was rather off. The distance I retraced was actually 150 miles, more than the distance from the start of 25S to Casper, Wyoming (about 113 miles). I did a terrible job of managing my stops and ended up arriving at Casper about 15 minutes after 5 PM. I took some pictures of City Hall and the Hall of Justice (will show tomorrow) and found my hotel. Wyoming is another state with promotional maps of the different cities. I tried twice before entering Casper to get a map of the city and everyone was out. Luckily, I did find an information center just down the street from my hotel and it was open until 6 PM. So I got a map with 10 minutes to spare.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my second day in Billings, Montana.

Tomorrow will be tricky. I hope to visit Cheyenne on my way to Denver, but I need to be away from Casper by around 11 AM in order to get to Cheyenne before everything closes for the evening. I guess that will determine broadly whether I visit Cheyenne or not. If it's past 5 PM before I arrive, there isn't much point in stopping. We'll see how I do.

TTFN

Billings, MT (day 1)

Billings, MT

August 3: Post 3 - I arrived in Billings early enough to go to the City Hall (or what I thought was the City Hall) to get a zoning map. I found the building without any problems. It was actually the library, with a city office annex in the upper floors. I must have written down the address for the Planning Department, because it was in the annex, but they had to send me to the county courthouse to get a zoning map. This was right across from City Hall a few blocks down. The photo, as you can tell, is of City Hall, which I didn't have to go into at all. I didn't get a picture of the front of the courthouse (sorry), which is where the GIS department was that could print the map.

They were going to have to run one fresh, so instead of waiting I went out to find the Skypoint art installation (or whatever you call it) and got some pictures. It looks interesting, however, I gather people are rather confused as to it's point. It does come in handy at blocking out the sun at the intersection, but is difficult to see as a whole because there are buildings and trees and skyways obstructing the view. The picture I posted is probably the clearest one I got.

After finishing with Skypoint, I went to look for an Art Gallery that was listed nearby. I found it but, as expected, it was closed. It's on the list for tomorrow. Then I headed back to the GIS department. Although the printing was supposed to only take about 20 minutes, it was still going when I got there. I think I waited another 30 minutes or so, but it finally finished. Someone said they had just installed new software. From my experience with various Microsoft products, I understand.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my first day in Billings, Montana.

Anyway, after that it was time to find my hotel and retire for the night.

TTFN

Addendum: OK, I forgot about this. Along with many other cities (Great Falls - Buffalo, LA - Angels), Billings (or maybe Montana) is doing a painted animal art project. Here is a horse. I didn't get a picture of the Bighorn Sheep off to the right. It's nice, but I'm starting to get sick of them.

Lewistown, MT

Lewistown, MT

August 3: Post 2 - The weather was nice Monday morning. The road - not so good. I was taking state route 87, a basic two lane route. Unfortunately, for about six miles it turned into a dirt/gravel bypass while they were rebuilding the main road. I still need to take a look underneath to see if anything got badly dinged from the loose rocks that I heard hitting the car. No red lights went on, so it looks like nothing critical was hit.

Finding the town hall was a bit amusing. The directions weren't quite correct, but my map led me to the right area, only I didn't see anything marked City Hall. I parked at the Community Center and was about to go inside when I got some help from a passing shuttle bus. He directed me to the Fire Station building next door. When I looked at it more carefully it turned out the left side was a fire station and the right side was government offices. I even found a window for Planning. However, they directed me to a building that really needed a pant job, and didn't really look in use, in order to get an actual zoning map. When I walked over, I did see a sign hanging above the door that indicated it was a government office. Once there I got a map without difficulty, but Lewistown really seems to want to keep their office a secret from outsiders.

The other thing I want to see in Lewistown was the county courthouse. This is a really nice official looking building with a copper dome and everything. I took pictures all around and discovered a fountain on one side. It also seems to still be in use as a courthouse.

I stopped by an art "museum" which mostly sold arts pieces from local artists and artisans, but did have a few galleries showing local artists. After lunch I headed on to Billings. Much less drama on this leg of the route.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my weekend in Great Falls, Montana.

Great Falls, MT

August 3: Post 1 - Over the weekend I stayed in Great Falls. I didn't make it to city hall (I already have a zoning map), but did get to a few other places.

First is an arch out in front of the library. It's an arch in semi-rough cut stone. It also has some waterworks as you can see. I've been to Great Falls and the library (it is a wifi hotspot) many times, but only in the winter. I didn't remember the arch before, but thought it was because the water was shut off and the area was buried in snow before. It turns out this is a recent addition and was just activated within the last month. I never would have made it as a detective.

On Sunday I went to the Veteran's Memorial overlooking the Missouri River. It is relatively new (2006) and lists service members from all branches and throughout Montana. No dates or specific wars were noted, so I don't know how far back the listings go. The photo only shows the inner ring of panels. There is an outer partial ring that holds at least as many names. There was a small booth with a computer to help people find a particular name. Due to summer heat, there was a fan in the booth to cool the electronics. I guess you can't think of everything.

After that it was down closer to the Missouri and the world's shortest river (allegedly). According to helpful signs, water comes from an underground stream many miles way that goes through a limestone bed and then gets forced up to the surface. The photo shows almost all of the river. In the middle left part of the picture is a pool through which most of the water comes out (I think it might be man made). The water overflows the pool, flows down the broken rocks and (off camera) flows into the Missouri. Total length - maybe 30 feet.

Finally, a picture of my favorite building in Great Falls - The Paris Gibson. It currently an place for art exhibition, but was originally built as a boys school. I've been trying to make a decent model in Sketchup for GoogleEarth, but I'm rather bad at Photoshop.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my weekend in Great Falls, Montana.


Sunday was an end to lazing around and it was back on the road on Monday.

Butte, Montana

July 31 -- Today was all about Butte, Montana. Although I started out in Billings, I didn't do any sightseeing there (I'll be back through on Monday) but immediately got on the road toward Butte. Unfortunately, the rain started just as I was packing up to leave. Although the rain wasn't as bad as I'd seen earlier, there was the challenge of going around more turns since I was going through mountains this time. It looked like the rain curse was back and I'd be spending another soggy day visiting the sites of another city. However, the weather broke before I arrived at Butte, so although it was a little muggy, it was otherwise a bright shiny day in Butte when I arrived.

I was a little confused by the City Hall. It's also the city and/or county courthouse, so I originally thought I was in the wrong place. After going in and out a few times, I finally looked at the directory and found the place I wanted. Without too much trouble I obtained a zoning map of the city. While I was waiting for a printout I saw some other maps that were interesting. One showed the major property holders in and around the city. I couldn't get close enough to read who they were. Another map showed the population changes in the various Montana counties from 1990 to 2000. In general the eastern part of the state gained population and the western part of the state lost population. Silver Bow County, where Butte resides, had the distinction of being the only county with an unchanged population. What really surprised me was that some counties had an increase or decrease of as much as 25% in just one decade. The data is now almost a decade old. I'm sure they will have a new map after the 2010 census is done.

I tried to see some of the "Copper King" mansions, but one required reservations and another wasn't open. So I went to find something to eat before moving on. I found a little place that used to be the city jail. The woman told me a little about the place and the city. Among other things, the city police had been corrupt during the 1980's until the FBI came in and cleaned it up. I think that was around the time the Berkeley Pit was being shut down, so it sounded like something that happened during hard times.

After that I drove to the Berkeley Pit and hung out there for a little bit. There wasn't that much to see. It's a hole in the ground with water in it. Kind of like Crater Lake without the island in the middle. In truth you could see the water cleaning plant across from the viewing stand. There was some dirty liquid flowing down the side of the pit from there, but I wasn't sure what that was about. The owners of the viewing stand were trying to spruce the place up. In addition to the gift shop they had some picnic tables and an old style trolley to amuse the kids. There was also the start of a scenic garden on the hill by the gift shop.


In addition to the pit, there were a lot of black metal structures which were related to the mines. I'm unclear if that was how people and ore were transported up and down or if it had something to do with processing. Anyway, these structures were all over the east side of town. The one shown is behind the police station. The City Hall had a model of the minehead and how it was used. Unfortunately it was broken so I couldn't see it in action. Each structure had a name, I think the same as the mine it serviced.


Since I still had time, I headed down to Montana Tech and the Mineral Museum. The museum was made up of one large room and a few side rooms and balconies all in one of the buildings on campus (I think the Biology department was on the next floor down). Various gems and minerals were in cases around the place with larger pieces either in individual cases or just on a pedestal. I noticed that some of the items were actually in a safe (gold, silver, platinum). The neatest display was of phosphorescence in one of the side rooms. If you pressed a button the regular light would go out and a black light would turn on so you could see how some of the rocks glowed. After a few minutes the black light would turn off and two of the rocks would blow in the dark. Unfortunately, my camera can't take pictures of this. The picture shown is of one of the large pieces on a pedestal. It was part of a large crystal nodule that was cut apart.

Finally, I stopped by one of the Copper King mansions again. This time it was opened. The guide was showing a tour. I walked around and took some pictures until he was done and paid for a tour. I was very impressed with the amount of stuff packed into the building which didn't look all that big from the outside. The fourth floor was a ballroom in addition to the bedrooms and all of the sitting rooms. The guide even let me play one of the pianos for a little bit.

After that, running a bit late, I headed to Great Falls. I didn't have any problem getting there. Since I knew the layout of the city, once I was on the surface streets, I didn't have any problem getting to my destination. The only confusing part was that I had only been to the city in winter, so none of the streets looked familiar because of all of the green foliage around.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my time at Devils Tower.


I'm taking a break for a few days, but will be back on the road on Monday.

TTFN

Rapid City, Devils Tower and on to Billings

July 30 -- Today was a perfect touring day. The weather was bright, sunny and warm but not humid.

I liked where I was in downtown Rapid City. It had lots of cafes and shops of various types and also had various presidents standing around. The city uses the tag line "City of Presidents" evidently because many presidents have stayed there. Also, they have statues of various presidents decorating various street corners in the area. There were other Native American sculptures as well.







After having breakfast I walked down to the City Hall (again, the hotel was conveniently placed). I struck out with getting a zoning map to take with me. However, they did have a huge map (something like 5ft x 5ft) on the wall that they've been updating for years (colors of some of the areas were faded). They let me take a picture, so I can show you the type of maps I'm collecting. It's beginning to look like the days of paper zoning maps are numbered. They are moving online, but sometimes not in a very user-friendly form.

Finally, for Rapid City, I ran into this sign on a storefront. It's for a gun shop named "First Stop Guns". Being previously from California, I thought this was actually a protest sign at first. Understandable with a slight change in punctuation - "First, Stop Guns!"




Here's a slideshow of the photos from my time in Rapid City, South Dakota.






After about two hours and a stop for directions I made it to Devil's Tower. At first I was concerned because the parking was a bit crowded. However, once I got on the trail around the tower the number of people was quite reasonable - only a handful at a time were visible. I took the short loop around the tower which is about 1.3 miles. It took about 45 minutes which wasn't bad given that the trail was up and down plus there were information signs all around, as well as stopping to take pictures. I wanted to make a 360 degree view of the tower, but that will take a bit long, so I picked one of the best from the bunch of pictures I have for this post.

On the way out I stopped a few times to get some "arrival" shots of the tower (most people were stopping for these shots as they arrived). However, one stop was to tell people about pairiedogs. There were lots of rules about don't feed, don't approach, etc. seemingly to prevent the critters from getting too friendly and walking onto the road and getting squashed. Unfortunately, the ones I saw seemed to be very comfortable around people and cars, which I don't think was the result conservationists were after.

After going around the tower and getting some things at the gift shop I headed out of the monument and had a late lunch. Although I had a bottle of water for my walk, I should have had something to eat before I started the expadition. After that it was off to Billings. Flat plains are long gone, but no big mountains either, although a couple of the descents did pop my ears.

I probably won't post on Friday as I will won't have an internet connection. I'll try to post over the weekend, but I should be back on Monday evening at the latest.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my time at Devils Tower.

TTFN

Ted

Sioux Falls and across South Dakota

July 29: Post 2 -- My first stop in Sioux Falls was the USS South Dakota memorial. I had read about this in the guidebooks and was curious what they had done. The ship was decommissioned after WW2 and eventually scrapped. Various parts of the ship were stored at military sites all over the place. I gather that one of the commanders of the ship had retired to Sioux Falls and was involved in obtaining these various parts. Rather than just displaying the parts in a random order, the parts will placed generally in their relative position in an outline of the ship (made of concrete it looked like). There was a central building which had some other equipment from the ship and also some models. On the outside of the building were plaques for the various battles in which the ship was involved. For a relatively small city, it was a fairly impressive effort.


Getting downtown was fairly easy. When I found the zoning/planning office, they were very helpful in getting me a map (my first big one). An engineer even took me to an annex where the GIS department had just been set up.









The printing was going to take a bit so I left my number and wandered down the the historic courthouse to have a look. It actually was several museums in one (I recall quilting an visual arts). I did see the balcony and the main courtroom (very empty). Before I could get much further, I got a call that the map was ready, so I splashed my way back to City Hall. After some confusion on where the map was, I paid for it and left.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my time in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.



My next stop was Rapid City, North Dakota. The distance was estimated at 340 miles. This is when I realized my vacation plans were a bit much. I'd already spent 3 or 4 hours getting to Sioux Falls. Now I had a trip equivalent to my drives from Los Angeles to San Jose and it was closing in on 3 PM. Plus, the rain didn't look like it was going away. On my list of things for next time is to plan less ambitiously. This was less ambitious in the number of cities visited in a day, but the distances are larger than before. Probably I should plan to alternate between driving days and sightseeing days.

Anyway, I headed down the I90 west with rain and overcast as far as I could see. After a grace period with no construction, they started popping up again, including one that was 20 miles long. Eventually the rain became less and less and the sun finally broke out. By the time I got to Rapid City the sun was becoming a bit of a problem - I was heading West and it was getting late. On the plus side, I picked up an hour, so I wasn't as late as I thought.

Finally, I have to admit that I was taken by some roadside advertising. Somewhere on my drive, I started noticing small billboards for Wall Drugs. They were almost all unique and often amusing. I don't recall how long they had been showing up, but after seeing them for quite a while, there was a sign saying "Only 150 miles to go". My guess is they were out at least 200 miles before the exit.




I got so curious about the place I decided to stop off for dinner (Wall is a town about 50 miles East of Rapid City). The place was in some ways a tourist trap. There wasn't anything there to see except the store, which was more like a small department store than a drug store/diner. The food was cafeteria style and OK. Most of the stuff that I saw for sale was rather kitschy western in one way or another. Still, my expectations weren't high; I was just curious. Once satisfied I headed on to Rapid City and made it there a little after 8 PM (Mountain Time).

More tomorrow.

Ted

Omaha, Sioux Falls to Rapid City, SD

July 29: Post 1 -- By staying in downtown Omaha last night, I was able to walk to City Hall from the hotel. This is very convenient.

I got up there sometime after 9 AM and got into line for the metal detector, which seems to be normal for larger City Halls. However, in this case, the security was just for a particular courtroom. Since I wasn't going to court, I had to duck back out of line. I was able to get a Zoning map for Omaha -- my first one this trip. I also got a website reference to check the map online.





Once done with the map, I went outside and took some pictures of City Hall and the County Courthouse which was next door. It was nice and sunny out today, which was a switch from yesterday. I also noticed that this was the third city where downtown did not seem very busy in the middle of the day. It could be because it's summer or the economy is bad or something else. I just don't remember Sacramento or some of the larger cities in California being this quiet.



Here's a slideshow of the photos from my time in Omaha, Nebraska.


I was on the road up to Sioux Falls, South Dakota around 10:30 or so. If you are wondering why I chose to visit Sioux Falls rather than Sioux City, which is bigger, there are a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to get a range of cities during my vacation, not just the biggest ones. Second, Sioux Falls is right at the junction of I29 and I90 which is where I was going to change my route from North to West. It seemed natural to stop off there. During my trip up to Sioux Falls there were a lot more of the moves of both north and south flow onto one roadway. I realized that in some cases, the repair work wasn't just resurfacing the highway, but completely rebuilding it - new dirt, new gravel and then a new surface. I started wondering if any of this work was funded by stimulus money (from what I understand, it's unlikely). I also saw more fields of corn, wheat and other things I wasn't sure about. I got a picture of one of the fields when I pulled of the road to rest for a while.

Anyway, the weather remained sunny until right before Sioux Falls. In fact all of the pictures in Sioux Falls were taken while it was raining. I'm sensing a pattern:) I put on my raincoat, but realized what I should have brought was my fall jacket. For the most part, the rain wasn't so hard it would have soaked the jacket and it would have been much more comfortable to wear. More in my next post.