Category: Blog

(On the road in North Dakota)

If jumping in your car and taking off on a road trip isn’t an American invention, it oughta be. There are few activities more closely associated with the USA than loading up the family vehicle and hitting the open road. Whether it’s a Sunday afternoon drive, a weekend fling down the coast to another state or two, or a weeks-long coast to coast and back again odyssey, they are all part of that greatest of all American love affairs: with our automobiles.

The road trip is such an iconic, ingrained part of American life that it’s become synonomous with freedom, a rite of passage for young people, and for many of us the ultimate way to get away from it all, at least for a time. It’s also something you’ll find celebrated in popular culture down through the years in books, songs, television, movies and, naturally, commercials. (See the USA in your Chevrolet! Okay, I’m really dating myself with that one). On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 revisited. Route 66. The road trip in Animal House. National Lampoon’s Vacation. Pick your favorite or make your own list.

(South Dakota landscape)

Continue reading “Road Tripping” →

(Entering Badlands National Park)

So you’re in South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore. Fine, everyone needs to do that at least once. But while you’re there don’t overlook some other great attractions in the western half of the state. After all, let’s face it, Rushmore is a long way from anywhere and if you’ve gone to all the trouble of driving there in the first place, why not see the rest?

(It’s hot down there)

(There is actually some green out there)

That’s exactly what we did on our 2014 road trip. Whether you’re coming from the east or west on I-90 there’s no better place to start than Badlands National Park. Established as a National Monument in 1939, Badlands was redesignated as a National Park in 1978.

Continue reading “Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota” →

(Sunset over Billings, Montana)

On this year’s road trip, our highest one-day mileage was a mere 600 miles, way below our record road trip total of just under 1000 miles on the last day of our epic Seattle to New Orleans and back again odyssey in 2010. That day was a one-time stroke of let’s-just-get-home-no-matter-how-long-it-takes madness never to be repeated.

(Overview of Billings from the Rim Rocks)

The least amount of miles we covered this time in one day was close to zero when we spent one whole day in Billings, Montana. Some might ask, why would you spend an entire day in Billings? A fair question. It’s not the most picturesque city in the state, but it’s far from the worst. That dubious honor would surely fall to Butte, a tattered and battered old wreck of a town whose better days – or at any rate, more prosperous days – came more than a century ago. Nowadays, to call it run down would be a compliment. More like run over.

(Riverfront Park in Billings)

Continue reading “Road Trip 2014 Part Five: Billings, Custer, and the Little Bighorn” →